BJP terms regularisation ‘Diwali gift’, AAP calls it concrete move

The decision came at a time when political parties in Delhi are gearing up for assembly polls, likely to be scheduled for early next year, and all of them – AAP, BJP and the Congress – had earlier taken up the agenda of regularisation of unauthorised colonies, either during poll campaigns or during their tenures.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said that the central government’s approval on conferring of property ownership and transfer rights to residents of unauthorised colonies in Delhi was a “Diwali gift” for the residents in these neighbourhoods and criticised the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Congress for allegedly failing to have initiated the process over years.

A view of the unauthorised colonies, at Ganesh Nagar in New Delhi. (Photo by Biplov Bhuyan/ Hindustan Times)

The AAP and the Congress dismissed the BJP’s claims.

Earlier in the day, Delhi’s chief minister and the AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal had called it a “concrete move” on part of the Centre and said that they deserve credit for this.

The decision came at a time when political parties in Delhi are gearing up for assembly polls, likely to be scheduled for early next year, and all of them – AAP, BJP and the Congress – had earlier taken up the agenda of regularisation of unauthorised colonies, either during poll campaigns or during their tenures.

“This Diwali is a Diwali of ownership rights. All the unauthorised colonies will celebrate Diwali of Happiness. Where the circle rate is ₹40,000 only 200 rupees per metre will be recovered as conversion charge, which is almost free. This is certainly a Diwali gift from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all these colonies will celebrate,” said union minister Prakash Javadekar, who is also in charge of Delhi’s BJP unit for the assembly elections.

He further said, “In 2008, the previous government [Congress] took some decision to regularise these colonies but neither them [Congress] nor the Aam Aadmi Part government implemented it.”

The BJP’s Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari said, “The AAP and its chief (Arvind Kejriwal) only gave assurances during the last 56 months to the people of unauthorised colonies but never fought for them. The AAP leaders came to power with the help of people of these colonies but they have been cheated. They have been misleading the people that the decision being taken by the Central Government is their decision.”

In a separate press conference, AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh said, “Why was the BJP silent for four-and-a-half years on unauthorised colonies after coming to power [in 2014]? On November 2, 2015, the Delhi cabinet had approved and sent the proposal of regularisation of unauthorised colonies to the Centre.”

“The BJP-led central government should immediately bring an Ordinance, Arvind Kejriwal is ready to give ownership rights through registration,” said Singh, who is the AAP’s Delhi in-charge for the assembly elections.

Delhi Congress spokesperson Jitender Kochar said, “What was the BJP doing till now? For five years they have been in power in the Centre and in the municipal corporations, if they genuinely wanted to regularise the colonies they would not have waited so close to the elections for the announcement.”