Housing, mainly for the urban poor, has emerged as a major poll plank in the Capital with Assembly elections round the corner. Beginning with the promise of granting ownership rights to lakhs of residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies in November and later connected to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre’s project related to the in situ rehabilitation of slum clusters in Delhi, both projects are a part of a large push towards the government’s “housing for all” goal.
According to the BJP insiders, both schemes are symbolic of the party’s localised poll slogan ‘Ek Vote, Teen Sarkar’ (One Vote, Three Governments) for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls during which it will seek to garner the electorate’s support in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ability for governance to return to power in the Capital after a gap of close to three decades.
At public meetings, the party has already begun propagating the benefits of welfare schemes that the citizens are likely to get — in a comparatively shorter period of time — if the same party is in power at the Centre, the State and municipal levels of governance and in-charge of administration.
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister of State (independent charge) Hardeep Singh Puri has said the Centre took up the project of delineating boundaries of the 1,731 colonies after the Delhi government delayed the work for 11 years. Mr. Puri has said in several public appearances and in media interviews, including to The Hindu , that the Delhi government had asked for two more years to complete the process.
Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Mr. Puri said the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is expected to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “vision” of providing housing to all under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) by 2020 – well in advance of its initial deadline of the year 2022.
Process begins
While the application portal for grant of ownership rights was launched on December 16, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the designated nodal agency for the project in Delhi, has received over 18,000 registrations as of Friday.
Senior DDA officials said that after registration on the portal, the applicants are required to obtain their respective geo coordinates. “Once applicants log into the system after filling up the basic details, they are required to provide the respective geo-coordinates. Agencies engaged by the DDA for the purpose of GIS mapping can be contacted by stakeholders. Once the GIS mapping is done, the ID will be sent to the applicant, who can then continue with the rest of the procedure,” a senior DDA official explained.
DDA Vice-Chairman Tarun Kapoor said: “We are ready with everything and now it is up to the people to come forth and register. The main challenge is to get the system in place which is now running. Completing the entire application form can be time consuming as people have to upload relevant documents apart from the coordinate maps.”
“Once we start receiving complete applications, we will process the same immediately. We are hopeful that the process of granting ownership rights will begin very soon,” Mr. Kapoor added.
The urban body has also completed delineation of boundaries in all 1,731 unauthorised colonies and maps for around 1,300 are available in the public domain. Residents of unauthorised colonies who register for ownership rights are likely to be granted rights within 180 days pending relevant verification processes by the land owning agency.
A total of 1,797 colonies had been identified in 2008, but the current grant of rights excludes 66 colonies deemed “affluent” at that time plus three added later (Sainik Farms, Anant Ram Dairy and Mahendru Enclave). The Delhi government had demanded these affluent colonies be included in the process now. Mr. Puri has said these colonies would be taken up later, as the rates to be charged for them would be different.
In order to facilitate the process, a Bill – the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2019 – was passed in the recently-concluded session of Parliament allowing applicants to use general power of attorney, will, agreement to sale, payment and possession documents to register their properties.
In situ rehabilitation
The DDA has also undertaken in situ rehabilitation projects in JJ clusters across the city. Under the first two phases, officials said, 32 clusters were considered for a total of 18 projects, which includes clusters in Haiderpur, Kalkaji, Kohat Enclave, Moti Bagh, Dilshad Garden, Vasant Vihar and Kirti Nagar.
DDA Housing Commissioner Rajiv Gandhi said: “Tenders for at least five of the 18 projects will be invited in December itself so that work can start. A model similar to that of the Kathputli colony will be followed where residents will be rehabilitated temporarily till the completion of development work.” Mr. Gandhi also added that survey of another 160 clusters is currently under way.
“A PPP model will be followed where 60% of the land has to be kept for the in situ rehabilitation while the remaining 40% will be the remunerative component, which means that the developer can utilise the area as per the land use norms,” explained Mr. Gandhi.
(With inputs from Damini Nath)
