40 Per Cent Unauthorised Colonies Won't Be Regularised: Delhi Congress

Delhi Congress leader Arvinder Lovely alleged on Friday that nearly 40-45 per cent unauthorised colonies in the national capital will not be regularised due to a notification issued by the BJP-ruled Centre.

The Narendra Modi government got a bill passed in the Lok Sabha to regularise 1,731 unauthorised colonies, but 40-45 per cent of them cannot be regularised as they are near the Yamuna riverbed or historical monuments, Arvinder Lovely claimed.

Regularisation of these colonies was barred according to a notification issued by the Centre last month, he said at a press conference.

"Around 40-45 per cent unauthorised colonies including those in Okhla, Tughalqabad, Buland Masjid and a majority of areas in east and south Delhi will not come under the purview of regularisation," he claimed.

On Thursday, the Lok Sabha passed a bill to grant ownership rights to residents of the national capital's 1,731 unauthorised colonies.

Demanding that the government withdraw its gazette notification issued last month, Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra said, "Unauthorized colonies in Delhi should be regularized on the basis of the ''as it is, where it is'' policy adopted by Indira Gandhi in 1976-77."

The Congress leaders termed the NCT of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Bill, 2019, passed in the Lower House of Parliament, as "cheating with people of Delhi" and claimed that it will create "chaos" in the coming years.

"The announcement by the Union and Delhi governments that the process to regularize unauthorised colonies will be completed in 180 days, is a big fraud being played on those living in these colonies. I will quit politics if this promise gets fulfilled," Arvinder Lovely asserted.

Delhi Congress' Assembly election campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad said that most of the residents of these colonies who struggle to earn two meals a day are now required to depend on smartphones to complete the formalities and get ownership rights.

Delhi Congress' chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma termed the notification a "death warrant" for the residents of unauthorised colonies. He said party leaders will visit unauthorised colonies and tell the residents how the BJP and the ruling AAP are "cheating" them by their regularisation claims.