Assembly approves DUSIB Amendment Bill
The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday approved the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) (Amendment) Bill 2026, changing the cut-off date for JJ clusters from January 2006 to January 2025.
“For 19 long years, previous governments failed to revise this date, leaving lakhs of poor families without basic rights or permanent housing. We changed a 19-year-old administrative mindset today. Delhi changed, its population changed, but those who called themselves the ‘Owner of Delhi’ did nothing for years,” Delhi Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood said while replying to the debate on the DUSIB (Amendment) Bill 2026.
Sood has introduced the bill on Monday, which amends the DUSIB Act, 2010, and extends the cut-off date for identifying eligible jhuggi-jhopri clusters from January 1, 2006 to January 1, 2025. The change could bring more settlements under the ambit of rehabilitation and relocation schemes, subject to other eligibility conditions.
“The proposed amendment seeks to substitute the words and figures ‘1st January, 2006’ with the words and figures ‘1st January, 2025’ in section 2(g)(iii) of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board Act, 2010,” the bill reads.
Hitting out at the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, Sood said, “For 10 years, the previous AAP Government had only made promises. Even in their manifestos, ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan’ was promised, but nothing was done. In 2014, the amount spent on JJ and slum development was around 206 crore; under our government in 2025-26, this was Rs 364 crore.”
During the discussion on the bill, AAP MLA Anil Jha asked the government to present any survey or report on the status of JJ clusters that were demolished and removed in the last two years.
“The matter of relocating JJ clusters is not that simple. What will the govt do for slums along railway tracks, DDA land? I also request the govt to do a survey of all the jhuggis removed and relocated in the past two years and the problems faced by the people living there,” Jha said while adding that slums had been removed from near Sood’s assembly constituency also. Sood denied the allegations, saying, “No jhuggi has been removed from near my assembly constituency”.
BJP MLA Sanjay Goyal said that in the previous years, problems of basic facilities in JJ clusters and slums continued; that is why, through this bill, the Government is attempting to bring improvements.
Based on the amendment to the DUSIB Act, the number of slum clusters would rise, increasing the financial burden of the Government, the bill added. After an official notification, the fresh rules will be implemented.
