‘Vote-bank politics denying us independence’
30 July 2012 9:58 AM GMT
The Delhi urban development minister AK Walia had said recently that the government is all ready to regularise 500 out of the list of 1,639 unauthorised colonies in Delhi by 15 August this year. However, officers within the government believe that the regularisation work would take time and that the government is likely to miss the deadline again.
The government had issued provisional regularisation certificates to over 1,200 unauthorised colonies ahead of the assembly polls in 2008. Not a single colony has been regularised so far.
Sources said, there are many hurdles in finalising the boundaries and the regularisation work of the colonies. 'One of the main reasons for the delay is that MLAs are indulging in vote-bank politics and are demanding that the regularisation work be done in a way that it works out to the advantage of their respective constituencies. As per reports submitted by the Survey of India in 2007, 50 per cent or more built up area needs to be consider for regularisation. But MLAs, in a bid to indulge their respective vote banks, are pressing hard to amend the criteria for regularisation,' a senior official said.
Officials said several Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) had submitted the layout plans of their colonies based on the ground situation as on 8 February 2007 while boundaries were drawn by Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure (DSSDI) based on satellite images of 2002.
The differences in ground reality and satellite images had created lot of hurdles in finalising the boundaries of the colonies.
Officials said that in certain areas MLAs are demanding that the ground situation in 2008 and 40-45 per cent built up area should be taken for consideration.
Unauthorised colonies are home to around 40 lakh people. Lack of developmental work in the colonies, which have been traditional Congress strongholds, was identified as a major reason for the party's defeat in the municipal polls.
The president of the Uttam Nagar RWA said, ‘We have been waiting for a long time for the regularisation of our colonies. The vote- bank politics of the MLAs is denying us our independence’.
CONFLICT COLONIES:
The government had issued provisional regularisation certificates to over 1,200 unauthorised colonies ahead of the assembly polls in 2008. Not a single colony has been regularised so far.
Sources said, there are many hurdles in finalising the boundaries and the regularisation work of the colonies. 'One of the main reasons for the delay is that MLAs are indulging in vote-bank politics and are demanding that the regularisation work be done in a way that it works out to the advantage of their respective constituencies. As per reports submitted by the Survey of India in 2007, 50 per cent or more built up area needs to be consider for regularisation. But MLAs, in a bid to indulge their respective vote banks, are pressing hard to amend the criteria for regularisation,' a senior official said.
Officials said several Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) had submitted the layout plans of their colonies based on the ground situation as on 8 February 2007 while boundaries were drawn by Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure (DSSDI) based on satellite images of 2002.
The differences in ground reality and satellite images had created lot of hurdles in finalising the boundaries of the colonies.
Officials said that in certain areas MLAs are demanding that the ground situation in 2008 and 40-45 per cent built up area should be taken for consideration.
Unauthorised colonies are home to around 40 lakh people. Lack of developmental work in the colonies, which have been traditional Congress strongholds, was identified as a major reason for the party's defeat in the municipal polls.
The president of the Uttam Nagar RWA said, ‘We have been waiting for a long time for the regularisation of our colonies. The vote- bank politics of the MLAs is denying us our independence’.
CONFLICT COLONIES:
- There are about 1,639 unauthorised colonies in Delhi.
- The govt had set a 15 August deadline for the regularisation of 500 of these colonies.
- Provisional regularisation certificates had been issued to over 1,200 unauthorised colonies ahead of the 2008 assembly polls, but there was no follow-up on it since.
- Officials have blamed vote-bank politics by MLAs for delay in regularising the colonies.
- Lack of development work in unauthorised colonies is said to be a major cause for Congress’ defeat in the 2012 municipal polls.
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