Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit termed her Government’s decision of lifting restriction on the use of agricultural land in lal Dora as ‘historical’ and assured all problems of rural population in the Capital will be resolved soon.
Announcing the Cabinet decision at a rally in Talkatora Stadium on Saturday, Dikshit said the rural areas of Delhi would not lag behind the urban areas in terms of development. “We will provide same facilities in these areas that are available in the urban areas. Our foes say that this decision is taken keeping in mind the upcoming elections, but if that would have been so, you wouldn’t have elected us thrice,” she said, while addressing villagers from across Delhi. She said the decision on the applicability of Section 81 of the land Reforms Act will benefit lakhs of people residing in the rural areas.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi’s Urban Development Minister Arvinder Singh lovely said Section 81 has often been misused. “Villagers should be allowed to build their home on their land wherever they want. We have decided that lal Dora will be extended to all 360 villages. We will give three-month time to RWAs or Gram Sabhas to identify the extended population of the villages and apply accordingly,” lovely said.
He said that anybody, who wants to build a house in rural area now, can approach the concerned municipal corporations as the civic agencies have the authority to clear it. “The Chief Minister has also issued an order to the Revenue Department to withdraw all pending cases under Section 81 in various courts,” the Minister said.