Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday said the Revenue Commissioner and the Divisional Commissioner have been instructed to physically verify if the allegations about non-existent unauthorised colonies were indeed correct. This, she said, would ensure that neither is injustice done to anyone nor the government land is grabbed.
Talking to The Hindu , Ms. Dikshit, who convened a high-level meeting on the issue with Urban Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and senior officials of the concerned departments in the evening, said “we will not let the process (of regularisation) derail due to the allegations”.
Ms. Dikshit said while NCP leader and former Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri had raised the issue of four unauthorised colonies being wrongly distributed provisional certificates -- as either the land in question belonged to the DDA or much of their area was still lying vacant -- she had also received a delegation of area residents who had claimed otherwise.
“We have got the papers from both sides and the matter is being examined by senior officials. We will not let any injustice happen and nor is it our intention to do any wrong,” she said.
The Chief Minister said in the meeting in which Chief Secretary P. K. Tripathi, Principal Secretary (UD) R. Chandramohan and Secretary (UD) R. K. Srivastava were also present that she was told that about 150 colonies have so far been cleared by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the no objection certificates have been issued to them. “We would be proceeding with their regularization,” Ms. Dikshit said.
“The regularisation is being done as per a policy decision taken when Mr. S. Jaipal Reddy was Union Urban Development Minister,” Ms. Dikshit said. She said while 1639 colonies had been issued provisional certificates as part of the process, “these certificates are not final; the final certificates would only be issued after completion of the due process”.
On the former Chief Town Planner of the MCD pointing out in 2009 that as many as 150 unauthorised colonies could neither be traced through aerial surveys or site visits, Ms. Dikshit said: “The official is now an Advisor with the PWD Department and we have asked him how and why he made the report. He has been asked to revisit the issue and recalibrate and do it.”
Ms. Dikshit also asserted that the Delhi Government would protect the “government land”. “If there is a mistake we are prepared to rectify it,” she said.
