AAP, BJP trade barbs over regularisation of unauthorised colonies

The BJP and the ruling AAP in Delhi on Thursday engaged in a political slugfest over the regularisation of unauthorised colonies, with both the parties seeking to corner each other on the issue.

In a protest at the Jantar Mantra, the BJP alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal government had done nothing to regularise these colonies, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit back saying that the saffron party had insulted residents of these areas instead of doing anything for them.

People living in the capital city's unauthorised colonies play a vital role in deciding the fate of any political party in any election and the Delhi assembly polls are slated early next year.

During the protest, senior BJP leader Vijay Goel attacked the Congress and the ruling AAP, saying the two parties had "fooled" the people on the issue of regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

"There are 1,797 unauthorised colonies in Delhi and 60 lakh people are living in them. The Congress was in power for 15 years while the AAP has been in power for five years. They have not done anything for regularisation of unauthorised colonies," he said.

Reacting to Goel's remarks, Delhi AAP convener and Labour Minister Gopal Rai sought to know what the BJP had done to regularise unauthorised colonies when it was in power from 1993 to 1998.

"It is for the first time in its history that the BJP has held a dharna for the residents of unauthorised colonies. Otherwise, it has only insulted the people of such colonies," Rai said.

"In 1993, the BJP came to power in Delhi and had three chief ministers within the its five-year term. I want to ask what did it do then for the regularisation of unauthorised colonies? Nothing," he said.

The BJP should leave the work of unauthorised colonies to the AAP and the Kejriwal government, Rai said, asking the saffron party to do two important tasks -- provide safety and ensure cleanliness in the national capital.

The Delhi Police comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs and mayors of all three municipal corporations in the city are from the BJP.

On Wednesday, the Delhi government proposed a set of parameters to regularise the 1,797 unauthorised colonies, which include charging one per cent cost of land circle rate for up to 200 square metre plot from occupants besides a nominal penalty.

An occupant having more than 200 sq metre plot will have pay the two per cent of circle rate as the land cost apart from penalty, which will be nearly half of the circle rate.

The Unauthorised Colony Mahasangh, which held the protest at Jantar Mantra, accused Chief Minister Kejriwal of "misleading" the people on regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

'Padyatras' (foot marches) would be held in the unauthorised colonies in the days to come to expose "the betrayal and double-standards of CM Kejriwal", Goel, who led the demonstration, said, adding that Kejriwal was not cooperating with Centre on regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

When the Centre formed a panel headed by the lieutenant governor to recommend parameters for regularisation of unauthorised colonies and it came out with a report, Kejriwal felt that he could "fool" the people and take credit for the work done by the central government, the BJP leader claimed.

However, the AAP has claimed that the Delhi government has accepted all the conditions of the Centre to regularise unauthorised colonies.

On Wednesday, Kejriwal said that Centre can take credit of regularisation of unauthorised colonies, but the AAP dispensation just wants that people living in these colonies get their right.

In its suggestions sent to the Centre, the Delhi government has asked the Centre to fix the new cut-off date of March 2019 for ownership rights instead of January 1, 2015, (having more than 50 per cent built up area) as defined by the Union government for the regularisation of unauthorised colonies.