Illegal colonies: No penalty on owners,yet

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said that a four-member ministerial committee has been asked to examine the issue,after a decision on it was deferred for the third time at a Cabinet meeting here.

A Minister said the Cabinet did not take a decisions the proposal prepared by Urban Development Department sought to levy “very hefty charges” on each households for land cost as well as providing basic facilities.

Sources said the Cabinet decided to set up the Committee to “delay” the announcement of levying the development charges as well as recovering land cost as it may draw sharp criticism from occupants of unauthorised colonies,especially when people are reeling under spiralling prices of essential commodities.

The members of the committee are Finance Minister A K Walia,PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan,Social Welfare Minister Mangat Ram Singhal and Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely.

The development charge has been proposed to recover cost of providing various basic amenities like water,power,roads and sewer lines in the unauthorised colonies which have applied for regularisation.

The Delhi government had issued provisional regularisation certificates to over 1,200 unauthorised colonies in the year 2008,just before the assembly elections.

The Government after scrutinising all the applications for regularisation later forwarded 1,639 applications to MCD,DDA,ASI,Forest Department and Revenue department for scrutiny and verification.

The government has already spent Rs 2,800 crore in providing basic services in these colonies.

Dikshit,chairing a meeting to review developmental works in these colonies last week,had said the process to regularise them should be completed as soon as possible.

She said regularisation of the colonies will enable the residents of unauthorised colonies to get all benefits and basic amenities available in any other developed colonies.

Officials said 733 colonies have got no objection certificates from all the concerned agencies and these colonies can be regularised at the earliest.