The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila deliberately let go of opportunity: Goel

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Wednesday, Oct 08, 2008
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Sheila deliberately let go of opportunity: Goel

Staff Reporter

Regularisation of unauthorised colonies in Delhi

Vijay Goel

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Vijay Goel on Tuesday accused Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of not being able to regularise unauthorised colonies as she had failed to provide them with basic amenities as directed by the Supreme Court in 2006.

Asserting that Ms. Dikshit “had enough time to regularise the unauthorised colonies if she had the power, the intention, the competence and the legal authority to do so”, the BJP general secretary said: “As per revised guidelines issued by the Union Urban Development Ministry on October 5, 2007, the entire process of regularisation had to be completed within six months and formal regularisation after effecting change in land use within nine months.” But the Delhi Government failed to provide complete regularisation to the 40 lakh residents of these colonies.

As for “provisional regularisation certificates”, he said, the Ministry had stated that these “shall be subject to the scrutiny of the requisite documents with regard to fulfilment of conditions stipulated under Clause-4” of the regulations for regularisation of unauthorised colonies as notified by Delhi Development Authority.

Also, the final boundaries of the colonies were to be fixed only on completion of all requisite formalities included in Clause-3, which too had to be done within three months from date of submission of lay-out plans.

Stating that “no scrutiny had taken place”, Mr. Goel wondered what then was the criterion on which the provisional certificates were issued. Questioning if these unauthorised colonies would now be eligible for regularisation, he said: “The Supreme Court has directed in 2006 that these colonies should be provided basic amenities before regularising them. Over 30 urban villages, 200 rural villages and 51 colonies do not have even basic water supply to match the minimum requirement of 28 gallons per capita per day for proper functioning of the sewer system, without which regularisation is not only impossible but also illegal.”

Producing a Supreme Court order dated February 14, 2006, which stated that “in case the State authorities are not in a position to make available the basic services in respect whereof it is admitted that there are severe limitations, there shall be no regularisation of unauthorised colonies,” Mr. Goel, who has in the recent past organised rallies on the regularisation issues, said rather than working towards providing the basic services in these colonies the Delhi Govt was more keen on issuing provisional certificates for its narrow political gains.

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