AAP accuses BJP of lying on ‘regularising’ unauthorised colonies
New Delhi
Chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “blatantly lying”, referring to the hoardings put up across the city by the saffron party which say that the Centre is regularising unauthorised colonies. Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia also thanked Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri for “telling the truth” on the website of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), pointing out the fact that though residents of the 1,731 colonies have been given ownership rights to their properties, the colonies as such have not been regularised.
With the BJP-led Centre passing the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2019 in the recently concluded winter session of Parliament, the residents of unauthorised colonies will be allowed to sell and purchase their property legally, and also will be granted loans from banks. But, regularising an unauthorised colony would mean that all plots and houses will have to made compliant with the building by-laws and development control norms as mentioned in the Master Plan for Delhi, 2021.
Tagging Sisodia’s tweet in which he shared FAQs (frequently asked questions) on unauthorised colonies from the website of the DDA, Kejriwal tweeted: “DDA website says that centre’s scheme will neither regularise unauthorised colonies nor their houses. Really shocking. Can’t believe that BJP spoke such a blatant lie to the people and has put up so many hoardings. Thanks @HardeepSPuri ji for telling truth to people through DDA website.”
The BJP hit back at the accusation, saying the AAP was trying to mislead the people. “This shows their frustration, as the BJP-led central government has done what they couldn’t do. They are making an issue out of nothing just to mislead the people,” said Vijender Gupta, leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly.
Earlier in the day, Sisodia held a press conference at AAP’s office and said the BJP is deliberately misleading the people ahead of assembly elections in Delhi, which are scheduled in February. “If they really want to regularise the unauthorised colonies why don’t they give registry to the people,” he said.
On December 16, DDA launched its unauthorised colonies cell portal, designed to accept registrations from residents of unauthorised colonies for applying for ownership rights of their properties.
The Delhi unit of the BJP soon launched a publicity drive by putting up hoardings across the city, claiming that the 1,731 unauthorised colonies are now authorised along with a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many such hoardings have already been put up in areas such as Sangam Vihar and Burari.
Sisodia further claimed that despite the BJP installing “14,000 hoardings” in Delhi, not a single application has been successfully completed for registry. “According to the central government, 100 complete applications have been received, but according to our information, not a single application has been completed yet,” he said.
The deputy CM and senior AAP leader also demonstrated the DDA’s application process for ownership rights in unauthorised colonies which he called a “sham”. Using the DDA’s portal to register his current address in a government colony, he filled in all his details and at the end of the process, got a confirmation from DDA that his official residence application had been successfully completed.
“One can register on this portal with any address from a regular colony as well, and the applicant would still get a website registration number. This is a fraud on the people that the BJP is committing. The people of Delhi were expecting pucca registry before the election as per BJP’s claims. Instead Delhiites are getting inconsequential website registration numbers,” Sisodia said.
A senior DDA official said that not everyone can register. He explained, “There are two parts to the registration process: a property owner will first register on the website and the other where he/she have to give the details of their property after we have uploaded the maps of their colonies. Applications of only those properties will be processes which are located in 1,731 unauthorised colonies and maps to fix the boundaries have been uploaded.”
The BJP has also started setting up helpdesks, equipped with computers, scanners and Wi-Fi connections, in unauthorised colonies to assist the residents to get their documents of properties uploaded on the DDA portal.