The Centre on Tuesday said that unauthorised colonies will be regularised in the next two years. The regularisation of these colonies is pending since 1980’s. The issue had been figuring in the manifestoes of political parties since 1993 in all polls, whether Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly. The last regularisation of unauthorised colonies was done in 1977 in Delhi.

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that the AAP Government has sought two more years to deal with unauthorised colonies in Delhi. Interacting with media after the launch of the DDA’s web portal for land pooling policy, Puri said that a high level committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has sought two more years to regularise these unauthorised colonies. Currently, there are around 1,900 unauthorised colonies in Delhi encroaching upon Government land belonging to different agencies.  

“A high level committee under Secretary (Urban Development) was set up by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry to look into the issue of unauthorised colonies.

 The Delhi Government told the committee in May or June 2017 that it needed two more years. When we persuaded them again, we were told that they (Delhi Government) want another two years… on the one hand, we talk about solving the housing problems and on the other hand the local Government in Delhi is somehow not on board,” Puri said.

“Since 2006, thanks to the Delhi Government’s policies, the Centre has not been able to regularise any of unauthorised colonies,” Puri added.

Regularisation of unauthorised colonies was one of the biggest poll promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections. The migrant population forms a crucial vote bank for the ruling AAP in the national Capital.

Presently, Delhi Government’s Revenue Department has been tasked with the responsibility of completing the mapping of the 1,900 unauthorised colonies before the September 30, 2019 deadline set by the Delhi High Court. The cut-off date for regularisation of construction in these colonies is January 1, 2015.

Talking about the DDA’s land pooling policy, he said it would allow the city to get 17 lakh housing units capable of accommodating 76 lakh people. Using the web portal, all processes of receiving applications, verifications, grant of approvals and licences are expected to be completed in a time-bound manner through a single-window system, according to the DDA.