Regularisation gathers momentum

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday constituted a task force to deal with issues related to regularisation of 895 unauthorised colonies in the city.

The Chief Minister said government has appointed the task force to ensure that residents of the colonies, which were regularised, get the benefits of regularisation.

‘Government is keen to expedite development works in the colonies and take the regularisation process to its logical conclusion at the earliest,’ she said.

Urban Development Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely last week had announced that a task force will be set up to address various issues relating to regularisation of the colonies.

The task force, to be headed by Director of Local Bodies R K Srivastava, will have top officials of all concerned departments and agencies including the municipal bodies, DSIIDC, Irrigation and Flood Department, PWD and Delhi Jal Board.

All three municipal commissioners and divisional commissioner will be members of the task force.

‘Task Force has been constituted to address various issues relating regularisation of the unauthorised colonies including finalisation of their layout plans and execution of development works by various agencies,’ an official said.

The task force would report to Chief Secretary PK Tripathi on fortnightly basis.

Senior Urban Development department officials C Uday Kumar and K C Agarwal have been assigned responsibility to provide all sorts of information and assistance to residents of the unauthorised colonies which have been regularised.

Officials said government was trying to remove all hurdles for allowing sale and purchase in the colonies which were regularised.

Out of 895 colonies which were regularised last week, 312 settlements are on private land while 583 colonies came up on government land.

The sale and purchase of properties on private land may be allowed in a month’s time.

The standing committee of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has demanded Delhi government to waive off development charges for 985 regularised colonies. The committee, through a resolution, has also demanded the government to waive off land cost of those colonies that have been declared to be on the government land under Section 81 of Delhi Land Revenues (DLR) Act-1954. 'Most colonies among 583 colonies declared to be on government land are developed on agricultural lands of farmers sold to residents at different times. Thus, these residents have already paid the cost of land to farmers or the persons from whom they purchased it. The government is now trying to milk them again and asking them to pay cost of land on 50 per cent of the present circle rates,' said Rajesh Gehlot, Chairman of the Standing Committee of SDMC.  'We will impose only property tax but not any additional charge. They are already paying sewage, power and water charges,' added Gehlot. According to a senior official of SDMC, out of these 583 colonies, around 500 colonies have come up on land directly purchased from farmers, which have been declared government land under Section 81 of the DLR Act. The number of colonies developed on the lands owned by government agencies such as Delhi Development Authority (DDA), civic bodies, forest, ASI or other is just a fraction of the list.