Finalise colony layout plans: minister to civic bodies

The Delhi urban development minister has raised concerns over the delay in finalising layout plans of colonies that were regularised recently by the government.

The Delhi urban development minister has raised concerns over the delay in finalising layout plans of colonies that were regularised recently by the government.

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Arvinder Singh discussed the issue at a meeting on Thursday with commissioners of the BJP-controlled municipal corporations and officials of the urban development department.

"Civic agencies have claimed that they had sent requests for funds for preparation of the layout plans. But we got no such letter. We only received a letter on a pilot project in five colonies. It did not contain any detail required for such financial proposals," Singh said.

He called for focus on completing the layout plans. "Rather than politicising the issue, all the three corporations should concentrate on completing the work of finalising the layout plans," Singh said.

On October 23, the chairman of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation standing committee, Rajesh Gehlot, had claimed that the civic agency did not have the funds to prepare the layout plans.

Urban development minister Singh has directed the commissioners of the three corporations to complete work on the finalisation of layout plans in a time-bound manner and warned that any delay will be viewed seriously by the government.

"All the three corporations are bound to prepare layout plans in a month. It appears that the development of the unauthorised colonies is being politicised," added Singh.