Centre shows the green light to illegal colonies
The Centre on Monday gave the go-ahead to the Delhi government to issue a notification for giving a legit tag to 917-odd unauthorised colonies in the capital. HT reports. Plan of action
The Centre on Monday gave the go-ahead to the Delhi government to issue a notification for giving a legit tag to 917-odd unauthorised colonies in the capital.
A notification will be issued on Tuesday and after that, the sale and purchase of properties in these colonies will become legal. The threat of demolition had been giving sleepless nights to lakhs of residents of illegal colonies for long.
"A notification will be issued on Tuesday. The Delhi chief minister has also asked the Centre to consider regularising colonies on forest land," said Mukesh Sharma, parliamentary secretary to the Delhi chief minister.
The move is significant because the assembly elections are barely a year away and the residents of these colonies constitute a major votebank.
There are 1,639 unauthorised colonies in Delhi out of which 1,218 colonies got provisional certificates in 2008.
On Monday, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, urban development minister AK Walia, transport minister Arvinder Singh and Mukesh Sharma met Union urban development minister Kamal Nath to discuss the matter.
Sources said the issue of regularising three affluent colonies - Mahendru Enclave, Sainik Farms and Anant Ram Dairy - was also raised. "A new policy will be framed to regularise these colonies as they are different from the rest," said a senior Delhi government official.
The Centre has asked the Delhi government to prepare a detailed report on colonies for which notification will not be issued right away. The government has been asked to point out changes required in guidelines to ensure they can be regularised as well.
"The issue of colonies that are on forest land or have not got clearance from the Archaeological Survey of India was also discussed. We will work out the modalities," said Walia.
Monorail okayed
The construction of monorail also came up for discussion in the meeting. "An in-principle approval has been given for the construction of monorail from Mayur Vihar to Chandni Chowk. The Centre has asked us to identify more areas where it can come up," said Mukesh Sharma.