JOIN USOver 1,600 unauthorised colonies here may soon get legal status as the central government is keen on a fresh look on the issue and has ordered the making of a concept paper on it in the next 15 days.
After the concept paper is prepared, the Delhi government in consultation with Union Urban Development Ministry would prepare an action plan, said a statement.
The decision was taken at a meeting held by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu with the BJP’s seven Delhi MPs, legislators, councillors and officials from Delhi government and civic agencies.
The move seems aimed at wooing the residents of unauthorised colony ahead of the possible Delhi Assembly elections as Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay – himself a councillor – held a press briefing at the party office outlining the decisions taken at the meeting in the ministry.
‘Clear hurdles’
“The minister has also given directions for clearing all the hurdles coming in the way for regularising these colonies,” Upadhyay said.
He said his party’s elected representatives pressed for regularising all existing illegal colonies in the city, so that no colony is discriminated against.
“How can the colonies which are already existing be illegal? It is just an issue of these colonies not meeting the guidelines for getting regularised. These norms can be relaxed,” he said.
He said all illegal colonies may be taken up for regularisation – as against the earlier decision to consider only those which had come up till 2007 – and steps towards providing basic amenities in the colonies may be launched by the BJP-ruled civic agencies in the next three months.
Upadhyay also slammed the previous Congress government for misleading the residents of these illegal colonies by issuing provisional regularisation certificates, which have no legal significance.
“Removal of multiplicity of agencies in the capital for the public good was the focus of the meeting with Naidu,” he said.
He said the rigid rules which are preventing many of the illegal colonies to get regularised, may be changed.
Hi-tech solution
The latest information technology will soon be used to check encroachment in the capital and a separate private-public agency may be created for maintaining public toilets.
A statement said creation of a separate agency for maintenance of public toilets in Delhi on public-private partnership will be examined by the ministry in consultation with the Delhi government.
Municipal bodies, including the New Delhi Municipal Council and the DDA, were asked to undertake ‘Swachha Bharat Abhiyan’ from September 25, the birthday of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, till October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Delhi Municipal Act may also be amended to increase penalties for indiscrete disposal of solid waste and to enable effective solid waste management by minimising transportation and garbage disposal through recycling, it said.