For a nation on the move, citizens of its capital face an uncertain future, with more than 30 per cent living in Unauthorised Colonies(UCs). Since 1977, not a single such colony has been cleared, despite all the tall talk about them, with the result that their number stood at 700 in 1993, 1200 in 2008 and 2,200 as on date.
With the ever-rising population, it’s obvious as daylight that such colonies are mushrooming by the day, with dwelling units being built illegally, with or without collusion of concerned officials, since on paper land cannot be sold nor any construction activity undertaken. No safety standards are being followed and no civic facilities provided.
Considering this paradox, common sense dictates that the issue can be resolved by the government by giving all such colonies a legal identity, while implementing a system to ensure that no further construction activity takes place by fixing accountability on competent officials of the concerned departments.
For example, junior engineers of SDMC or EDMC etc can be held liable in such a system, to keep tabs using technology readily available nowadays and filing a status report of the ground situation periodically. They could be shuffled every six months, to curb graft, with their successors receiving all the records. If they default, such officials should get the rap from the government, which is constitutionally bound not to cause inconvenience to law-abiding citizens.
Unless such a plan is put into action, it will always be a chicken-egg situation.
Our colonies may be unauthorized but our voters are authorized!
Our politicians have been fooling us time and again, giving false promises of regularization of UCs. Before 2008 Delhi Assembly elections, outgoing CM Sheila Dixit distributed so-called provisional regularization certificates. In 2013, right before the elections, 895 colonies were declared “eligible for authorization”. Nothing further happened of course. It also came to light from a Delhi government note on charging property tax that 1018 colonies were eligible for regularization as early as February, 2012, but they continue to carry the tag of being UCs.
Instead of taking decisive action, the government keeps notifying new cut-off dates for UCs: 2008, 2014, January 2015 – now we are in 2019!
Even judicial intervention has not borne any fruit so far. Several observations and orders have been passed by the courts, but the end result has been that nothing has ever changed on the ground, leaving millions of residents of UCs with an impression that there is no rule of law.
On May 31, 2017, Delhi High Court created a committee consisting of the heads of 10 departments under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Union Urban Development Ministry, directing it to meet at least twice a month and giving it full authority to take a decision on the vexed issue. However, twenty months and forty meetings later the situation remains as murky as ever.
Quite clearly, we are simply being played with, and this game can no longer go on. The time has come for every single UC in the capital of our great nation to get a legal status so all citizens can live with dignity and peace, whether it’s the government or the judiciary that resolves the issue.
It’s a now or never situation. Let us all unite under one umbrella and fight for our right. Join ADC today and be a part of the struggle.
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