South Delhi farmhouses to get ‘legit’ tag

The year 2013 may burn holes in the pockets of farmhouse owners. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Wednesday announced the move to regularise farmhouses by charging their owners up to Rs. 5 crore.

The year 2013 may burn holes in the pockets of farmhouse owners.

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The South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Wednesday announced the move to regularise farmhouses by charging their owners up to Rs. 5 crore.

“The Delhi Development Authority has passed the regularisation policy. The SDMC will start regularising the farmhouses once the rate list is released. We are expecting revenue of R600-700 crore, which can be used in developmental projects,” Rajesh Gehlot, the chairman of the SDMC standing committee, said.

The BJP-ruled civic body, with eyes fixed on this year’s Assembly elections, focused on developing village areas such as Kakrola and Najafgarh and allotted little for the purpose to posh localities such as South Extension and Greater Kailash.

The SDMC plans to allot R75 crore a special corpus for development of rural and urban villages the next financial year (2013-14). There are 86 rural villages and 81 urban villages under the jurisdiction of the SDMC.

Councillors demanded that they be allotted R1.5 crore, instead of the R50 lakh they get now, for maintaining drains and streetlights in wards.

The panel also earmarked a special corpus for giving monthly allowances to the councillors of R25,000. However, the councillors would have to wait for a nod from the government.