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.

The Indian Express   28.08.2012

Regularisation of 917 illegal colonies to be notified today

45 resettlement colonies will be regularised

The Union Urban Development Ministry on Monday paved the way for the Delhi government to begin regularising unauthorised colonies in the national Capital.

The ministry approved the regularisation of 917 colonies after a meeting between Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday. Dikshit plans to notify it on Tuesday.

Delhi Urban Development Minister Dr A K Walia said: “The Union ministry has cleared the regularisation of 917 unauthorised colonies, which we will notify on Tuesday. We will now begin the process of vetting the remaining unauthorised colonies in Delhi.”

He said 45 resettlement colonies, which came up in the 1970s, would also be regularised. This would help more than 10 lakh people, he said.

The Delhi High Court had issued notices to the Union and Delhi governments last week over the regularisation process following a petition that sought to challenge the government’s authority to regularise such colonies.

When his comments were sought on this, Walia said: “We spoke to the Union ministry about the High Court directions and they have asked us to go ahead.”

It was in the run-up to the assembly elections in 2008 that Dikshit had promised to regularise more then 1, 600 unauthorised colonies. However, after distributing “provisional” certificates them, the government had made no progress in granting amnesty till now.

Dikshit led a delegation to the Union Urban Development Ministry on Monday, which included Walia, cabinet colleague Arvinder Singh Lovely, Parliamentary Secretary Mukesh Sharma and Chief Secretary P K Tripathi.

After the Congress’s dismal showing in the April Delhi municipal polls this year, Dikshit had directed all government departments to fast-track the regularisation process with assembly elections slated for 2013.

Earlier this month, the Delhi government had cleared the way for 917 colonies after clearances for regularisation were granted by the Forest department, the MCD, the ASI, the Revenue department and the DDA. These clearances were sent to the Union government.

The government had also requested the Union Urban Development Ministry to issue new guidelines for regularisation of the remaining colonies as well as affluent colonies like Sainik Farms, Anant Ram Dairy and Mahendru Enclave. Sources said the ministry has approved the proposals and would draw up new guidelines shortly.