Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday instructed officials to expeditiously allot the flats that have been constructed for the EWS and slum dwellers and to remove all obstacles in the allotment of land required for the construction of these flats.
Mr. Kejriwal was chairing a meeting of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board to review the status of the ongoing JJ cluster rehabilitation plan under the Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana.
A total of 9,315 house inventory is in a ready-to-move condition for 14 identified JJ clusters. Apart from these, a total of 28,910 are being constructed for 73 identified JJ cluster, a DUSIB official said. They added that of these 9,315 house inventory, 7,400 houses have been proposed in Bhalswa Jahangirpuri for seven identified JJ clusters, 1,060 houses have been proposed in Sultanpuri for four identified JJ clusters, and 855 houses have been proposed in Bawana for three identified JJ clusters.
Mr. Kejriwal said, “We have to ensure that the construction of the EWS flats for the in situ rehabilitation of the people is completed in its due timeline. This has to be ensured so that we can provide shelter for every poor in Delhi.”
Under the ‘Jahan Jhuggi, Wahin Makaan’ policy of the Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana, poor families and slum dwellers will be provided new affordable flats by the Delhi government. The project will be executed and implemented by the DUSIB, the government added.
‘Bogus exercise’
On the other hand, the Delhi Congress alleged that with an eye on civic elections next year, the Centre and the State have begun a bogus exercise to survey the JJ clusters to fool the people.
It added that for the past seven years, the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party have been conducting such pointless exercises in the name of “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna” and “Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojna” respectively, but neither any jhuggi resident has been allotted any alternate plot, nor any flat has been given till now.
Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar said that it was the Congress government which started constructing in situ flats to relocate JJ cluster residents on an as-is-where-is basis, and under this scheme, 64,000 flats have been constructed, but these flats have not yet been allotted to the JJ cluster residents.
“The Delhi Congress had made a strong pitch to allot these flats to residents of 48,000 JJ clusters along the railway tracks in Delhi, when the Supreme Court ordered their demolition. However, this was not done and the flats continue to remain vacant,” Mr. Kumar said. He said that with the intervention of the Congress party through its senior leaders and lawyers, the Supreme Court had stayed the demolition of the JJ clusters along railway tracks, Mr. Kumar added.
