The BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi has criticised the Delhi Government’s decision to fix Rs.200 as development charge on unauthorised colonies.
MCD Leader of the House Subhash Arya and MCD Standing Committee chairman Yogendra Chandolia accused the Congress-ruled Delhi Government of acting as a “commercial institution” as far as regularisation of unauthorised colonies was concerned.
Mr. Arya said: “The policy of the Congress Government is to regularise these colonies only at the cost of hefty payments as with the Government fixing a development charge of Rs.200 per square metre even owner of a small plot measuring 50 square metres would have to pay at least Rs.1 lakh.”
“While allotting provisional certificates for regularisation, the Congress leadership in 2008 had promised that the unauthorised colonies would be regularised by December 31, 2010, but there was no mention of levying the development charges at that time. This was done to mislead the 40 lakh poor people living in these colonies and to win the Delhi Assembly elections. After the elections, all these schemes have been kept in abeyance and not even a single colony has been regularised,” he added.
According to Mr. Chandolia, though the Delhi Government is “boasting” about regularisation of 733 unauthorised colonies but the layout maps of these colonies have not been handed over to the MCD for fixing the boundaries.
The MCD has made provisions of Rs.300 crore for the present and next fiscal year each for development in the unauthorised colonies out of its own revenue.
Mr. Chandolia said: “The civic body is self-sufficient for doing development works in the area under its jurisdiction. But due to political reason, the Delhi Government is not allowing the MCD to spend its own funds in these colonies. We want the Congress to take back the decision to impose development charges.”
