Unauthorised colonies: Process to give ownership rights to start in a month

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently claimed that the Centre has agreed to the Delhi government’s proposal to regularisation of unauthorised colonies, including giving ownership rights to residents, sent to the ministry in November 2015.

The Centre, on Tuesday, said the process of giving ownership rights to residents of 1,797 unauthorised colonies in Delhi will start within a month’s time.

Housing and urban affairs (HUA) minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that in the next few days they will get comments on the proposal from stakeholders and then they will get approval from the Union cabinet. (HT Photo)

Housing and urban affairs (HUA) minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that in the next few days they will get comments on the proposal from stakeholders and then they will get approval from the Union cabinet.

“Within a month, we will be able to issue the order (to start giving ownership rights to residents of unauthorised colonies),” HUA secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said.

Ahead of the assembly elections in Delhi next year, the BJP-led Central government and the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government are caught in a tussle over credit for initiating the proposal to give ownership rights to residents of unauthorised colonies in the national Capital.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently claimed that the Centre has agreed to the Delhi government’s proposal to regularisation of unauthorised colonies, including giving ownership rights to residents, sent to the ministry in November 2015. Puri, however, termed this statement “incorrect”. “It is the Central government which had appointed the committee to recommend the process to give ownership rights to people in unauthorised colonies,” he said.

APPOINTMENT OF DMRC MEMBERS

Meanwhile, Puri said that there is “no scope for non-official people” in the Delhi Metro board, referring to the Delhi government’s recent move of naming AAP leaders Atishi and Raghav Chadha as political representatives.

“We have a situation here. The DMRC is handled with great competence by the serving secretary in the ministry. There is no scope for non-official people in that board…Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is not suggesting the name of an MP but the names of two people who lost Lok Sabha elections,” Puri said.

Puri added that in 2003, then-BJP MP Madan Lal Khurana had resigned as DMRC chairman after the then-Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit had objected to his appointment to the board.

AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha responded to Puri’s remark saying, “By the extension of that logic, the minister [referring to Puri] must put his papers immediately as he achieved the unachievable feat of losing the Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar on a BJP ticket despite the Modi Tsunami and his party winning 300+ seats.”