The Indian Express 30.08.2012
Amnesty for 700 more colonies to take 6 months
The decision to notify 917 colonies as regularised, which was to be done on Wednesday, has been put off till later this week.
Delhi government said the process of sending the file to Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna’s office had been delayed due to procedural matters.
“The file for notifying regularisation of 917 unauthorised colonies couldn’t be sent on Wednesday for Lieutenant-Governor’s approval because of some procedural requirements. It will be sent on Thursday now,’’ Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said.
These colonies house close to 40 lakh people and the civic agencies are expected to take up work to provide basic infrastructure in these colonies.
The chief minister also said they would now begin work on speeding up regularisation of the remaining 700 colonies.
“Regarding the colonies that are yet to be regularised, our government has written to Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath the other such colonies that are already in existence should also be regularised. After all, how can we forcibly remove them now? We are confident the other colonies will also be regularised,” Dikshit said.
Dikshit also met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday to convey her gratitude for allowing regularisation of unauthorised colonies.
Meanwhile, senior government officials claimed that the process of regularising the remaining colonies would take another six months. “There are around 157 colonies, which are located on forest land and another 47 colonies, which are located near protected monuments. Besides this, some colonies are scattered and do not have the built-up area required for them to be regularised. We are looking into these issues and are trying to figure out how best to resolve them,’’ a senior government official said.
“We will hold meetings with Ministry of Environment and Forests to see if the land on which these colonies have come up can be denotified as forest land. Of the 47 colonies which are located near protected monuments around 15 have come up in the regulated zone (up to 300 m from the monument) and we will be seeking approval from the National Monument Authority for allowing regularisation of these colonies,’’ said the official.
The regularisation of affluent colonies like Sainik Farms, Anand Ram Dairy and Mahendru Enclave will also be taken up. “The Centre has also agreed in principle to a government proposal to grant ownership in 45 resettlement colonies, which were developed in the 1970s,’’ said the official.
