Regularisation of unauthorised colonies put on fast track

With Assembly elections due later this year, the Delhi government has decided to fast track the regularisation of unauthorised colonies. The Cabinet is preparing to approve the regularisation of at least another 200 unauthorised colonies in the Capital — it will take the total number to 1,200 — within the next 10 days along with land rights for 42 resettlement colonies.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who prioritised the regularisation of unauthorised colonies after the party lost the municipal elections last year, chaired a meeting of all relevant departments on Monday to determine government's progress.

"We are ready to approve at least another 200 unauthorised colonies in the next meeting of the Cabinet, which will happen in another week or 10 days," Dikshit said.

With 895 colonies already approved and notified by Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna last year, the government hopes to bring that figure up to 1,200 shortly.

In the run-up to the 2008 elections, the government had granted 1,638 provisional regularisation certificates (PRC). "Soon the number will go up to 1,200 but we hope we can complete all 1,638 colonies this year. Based on surveys, we determined that the last lot of colonies will be a complicated process," Dikshit said.

Senior officials in the government said clearances for the last few hundred unauthorised colonies would be harder. "Many of these colonies are fully within ridge boundaries, ASI protected zones and, in some cases, both. Other colonies do not satisfy the eligibility criteria. We are working on ways to try and get clearances for these colonies as well," an official said.

According to Dikshit, the next meeting of the Delhi Cabinet will also include approving land rights for 42 resettlement colonies, which were also regularised in 2012.

"Though these colonies have been notified as regularised, the process will not be complete till land ownership is finally handed over to residents. The Cabinet has to decide the rates that residents of these colonies have to pay before handing over land deeds," Dikshit said.

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