For Cong, BJP, a war of votes
The municipal elections in the capital are some time away but the political posturing of the two main parties, the BJP and the Congress, seems to have begun in the right earnest. And, when it comes to scouting for secure votebanks, the parties look towards the unauthorised colonies, where nearly 40 lakh residents are estimated to
be living. Like before, this time too they are hoping that the promise of regularisation of the colonies would reap rich dividends when the votes are cast some time early next year.
Not that much is happening on the ground. It has been more than three years since the union urban development ministry came out with the guidelines for regularising unauthorised colonies. Since then 1,639 unauthorised colonies have applied for regularisation. In October 2008, just before the Delhi Assembly elections, the Congress government went ahead with awarding “provisional regularisation certificates” to 1,214 colonies. It gave a one-year deadline to ensure that they are regularised. After elections, the October 2009 deadline was extended to December 2010 but not a single colony has been regularised so far.
About four months ago, the city government had claimed that there were no objections with respect to 733 colonies, while others had been met with objections from departments like forest and the Archaeological Survey of India. But the MCD, which was supposed to approve the layout plans, has not given any go ahead so far.
Meanwhile, Congress and the BJP have been at loggerheads trying to prove that the other was least concerned about the plight of the residents.
While the Congress has criticised the MCD move to charge house tax from the colonies, the BJP seeks amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act so that such provisions are removed.
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