Ahead of Delhi Assembly polls early February, the BJP has influenced its NDA government to extend the cut-off date by almost seven years to regularise unauthorised colonies that have sprouted up to June 1 this year.
Urban Development minister M Venkaiah Naidu readily accepted amendments pressed by seven Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party MPs in a Bill to extend the originally proposed February 2007 cut-off period to June 2014 for making more unauthorised colonies eligible to becoming authorised in official records.
The Lok Sabha unanimously passed on Tuesday evening the NCT of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2014 that sought to enhance the life of the act expiring this month by another three years.
Replying to the debate, minister M Venkaiah Naidu also informed the House that the government was taking steps to regularise 1,200 plus unauthorised colonies in the national capital which are inhabited by the poor who come here in search of livelihood from all over the country.
Delhi BJP MPs including Pravesh Sharma, Mahesh Sharma and Meenakshi Lekhi in their speeches argued for extending the cut-off date so that more colonies benefit from the exercise – a move which has the potential to yield political dividends in the coming polls.
The BJP is expected to use this to counter the influence of its rival Aam Admi Party and Congress in the slums.
“As of now, the cut-off date is 2007. As I was discussing earlier, what is the reality? Can you remove people who have settled after 2007 and who have been living in that place by 2014? In the original Bill it is 2007. So... I want to move an amendment also. Seven of the Delhi Members have given a notice for moving amendment for extending the cut-off date from February or March of 2007 to end of 2014, but I am willing to go by the collective wisdom of the members of the House and I want it to be extended by1st June, 2014,” Naidu said.
The minister was conscious of the fact that there was a need to regulate slums in Delhi so that it could be compared with the best of the global metros.
He also hoped that after three years he will not come to Parliament again for extending the life of the act.
He assured the House that the government was serious about having a comprehensive master plan of Delhi which would have views of the neighbouring states whose districts touch the national capital.
He felt that Delhi’s planning cannot be done in isolation and NCR planning board needs to be provided teeth for a holistic development of the region eneveloping the satellite towns of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad.
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