Unauthorised colonies to be regularised, says Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that his government will regularize unauthorized colonies and provide permanent houses to slum dwellers, and will seek more funds from the central government for the purpose.

"We will regularise all the unauthorised colonies in Delhi. We will provide permanent houses to slum dwellers," he said while addressing a public rally at Karawal Nagar in east Delhi.

He said the work to regularise unauthorised colonies in Delhi had already begun.

"We have started mapping of four unauthorised colonies and this process will be completed in a week. The mapping of other 895 unauthorised colonies will also be completed in a year," he said.

"Registry of such colonies would begin after the process of mapping is completed," Kejriwal added.

The Aam Aadmi Party government had earlier announced it would work towards the regularisation of unauthorised colonies by initiating steps like boundary fixation, mapping and asking the municipal authorities to prepare layout plans for such colonies.

Kejriwal also noted that the state will need funds to regularise all the unauthorised colonies in the city and "for this purpose we will approach the central government".

"Every year, residents of the national capital pay Rs.65,000 crore as tax to the central government. Delhi is given only Rs.325 crore fund by the central government. We will demand that the central government give us Rs.10,000 crore for the complete regularisation of all the unauthorised colonies," he said.

He also dwelt on the poll promises fulfilled in the last two months.

"We had promised that we will reduce electricity bills by half, we have fulfilled this promise. We said that we will make Delhi corruption-free, we have launched anti-corruption helpline numbers," he said.

He also appealed to the people not to be misled by allegations made by opposition parties.