National

Maken takes the battle over illegal colonies to BJP camp

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken has virtually taken the battle for taking credit over regularising the Capital’s unauthorised colonies to the Bharatiya Janata Party camp by charging that the 2004 guidelines issued during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime at the Centre were flawed. He claimed that the Congress had during its rule worked hard to provide relief to the residents of illegal colonies.

Addressing a joint press conference with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at Delhi Secretariat on Friday, Mr. Maken said the 2004 guidelines had made no corresponding changes in the Master Plan before 2001 and thus any guidelines for regularisation of unauthorised colony without proper backing of the Master Plan would have been infructuous in a court of law. Moreover, he said, the guidelines were also not notified as regulations under the Delhi Development Act. The UPA Government took several steps to clear the confusion, Mr. Maken said. He added that it made provisions for regularisation of unauthorised colonies in Master Plan for Delhi-2021 on February 7, 2007; the Union Cabinet approved changes in the guidelines of 2004 on February 8, 2007; and the revised guidelines were notified in October 2007.

The Minister further said that to accord legal status to the regularisation exercise these guidelines were notified as a regulation under the Delhi Development Act on March 23, 2008. Mr. Maken also pointed out that Para 2.1 (a) of the 2004 guidelines said “...The resident society would then undertake development works of services as per the approved services plan of the colony and on completion of the same would apply for regularisation to the concerned local body/DDA.” This, he said, meant that even to apply for regularisation, the housing society as a pre-requisite would be required to undertake and complete development works in the colony. He alleged that the NDA Government had washed its hands off carrying out development in these colonies. The Congress leader said: “New Regulations notified by the Union Government allow any colony to apply for regularisation. Provisional regularisation certificate can be given by the Government. … This would allow provision of infrastructure in these colonies, including that of water supply and sewage disposal.”

Under the 2004 guidelines, he said, there was also no clear delineation between private and public land, and a huge penalty could be charged from any land-owner. But now, he said, the Lieutenant- Governor of Delhi had issued a notification (as provided for under the 2007 guidelines) and defined private and public land.

Likewise, while Section 1.6 of the 2004 guidelines stated that “besides these infrastructure facilities, the resident society would also make available land to the extent of 15 per cent of the area of the colony for providing other community facilities, i.e., parks, community halls, schools etc,” this provision had now been done away with. The Minister stated that now these services would be provided in an open space of the colony or in its vicinity.Pointing to another key aspect , Mr. Maken said while the 2004 guidelines made no mention of the habitations which had come up as an extension to the village abadi, now even these habitations are eligible for regularisation. Already, he said, the Delhi Government had identified more than 300 such habitations.

Finally, the Congress leader said that as per the 2004 guidelines the service plans were to be prepared and development works were to be carried out by the resident society themselves. “It was foolish of the previous Government to expect the resident societies to provide service plans and then get those approved through local bodies and then conduct development activities themselves. The Government cannot absolve itself of the responsibility of carrying out development in these colonies.”

Thus, he said, such provisions of the 2004 guidelines had been removed.

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