New Delhi: The National Capital Region planning board, which met on Tuesday to discuss the urban development plan of Delhi for 2041, has now proposed that all land in 49 rural villages of Delhi that is covered under the Delhi Land Reforms Act of 1954 and known as Lal Dora land now be handed over to the Delhi Development Authority and that the over 50-year-old law be repealed.
Specifically, Lal Dora land is the categorisation for residential zones in the villages, which were at some point surrounded by farmlands and municipal rules do not apply here to protect farmlands. Nevertheless, these lands have seen unauthorised development in the years since.
In several areas where such unauthorised construction had taken place, in violation of the Delhi Land Reforms Act, the land in question came to be caught in a flurry of legal complications.
And while the Delhi government in 2016, had brought a proposal to amend the relevant clauses of the law following which in 2019, the L-G's office had approved the withdrawal of cases related to unauthorised constructions under this law.
This Delhi Land Reforms Act, significantly, applies to just 13.6 per cent of the 358 villages in Delhi. Other than the 49 rural villages, 174 have been declared as urban and 135 have been declared as urbanised.
In the plan proposed by the NCRPB, the draft regional plan for 2041 says,
"Lal Dora and Extended Lal Dora areas declared as urban have continued to witness haphazard and chaotic development. It is now proposed that the relevant revenue laws which were framed more than 50 years ago should be reviewed according to the current times and future requirements of Delhi and NCR."
While the Centre has said they will take up the draft plan soon in another meeting, the approval for this plan was deferred to a later date in Tuesday's meeting. The Centre has added that after certain decisions are arrived at, public suggestions will also be sought.
The NCRPB, is under the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, and is concerned with all of Delhi, Haryana's 14 districts, eight in UP and two in Rajasthan.