BJP, Cong in war of words over bill to regularise unauthorised colonies

A war of words broke out between the BJP and Congress in Lok Sabha on Thursday during the discussion on a bill to regularise 1,731 unauthorised colonies in Delhi when BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri alleged that successive Delhi governments failed to extend ownership rights to people residing in those colonies.

Bidhuri's remarks attracted a sharp response from Congress members who said the BJP member cannot take name of a person who is not a member of the House and is not alive.

Participating in the debate on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Bill, 2019, which seeks to grant ownership rights to residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies, Bidhuri said the AAP government has also not done anything for "poor" people of these colonies.

Forty lakh poor people were struggling to get ownership of their properties as they came here to earn livelihood, he alleged, adding the number of unauthorised colonies in Delhi would not have increased if the Congress government had taken steps in that direction.

Bidhuri said former Delhi chief minister Shiela Dixit did not think about those people and distributed provisional certificates prior to the 2007 elections despite the fact that the Congress was ruling in both the Centre and in Delhi.

When her name was taken, Congress member Hibi Eden raised a point of order on which Lok Sabha chair A Raja stated that he will look into the records and if found derogatory against any person, that will be expunged.

Intervening in the matter, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the member was only expressing "historical views" on the important legislation.

Adhir Ranjan of the Congress said the BJP member is using derogatory words.

With Bidhuri alleging that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too did nothing for these colonies and only made false promises and statements, AAP member Bhagwant Mann rushed to the well of the House several times seeking time to refute the allegations.

"The then Congress government in Delhi has committed a fraud on these 40 lakh people," Bhiduri said, adding the Centre wrote to the Delhi chief minister several times to demarcate areas of these colonies, but they only sought time and did nothing.

Moving the bill to grant ownership rights to residents of Delhi's unauthorised colonies for consideration, Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the process to map these colonies digitally should have started in 2008.

The process of digital mapping of 1,731 unauthorised colonies of Delhi will be completed by December 31 and uploaded on a newly-created portal. Over 600 colonies have been digitally mapped so far, he said.

Alleging that prior to May 2014, governments failed to do anything for these colonies, the Union minister said that it was the Narendra Modi government which brought Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) so that every Indian can own a house.

Puri said the government will complete the target of constructing all houses under PMAY.

Asserting that there are no basic amenities as local authorities do not treat these areas on par with regular colonies, Puri said, "All attempts made earlier were half-hearted and today over 40-50 lakh people are living in these unauthorised colonies."
Demanding free registration, he asked, "Poor people are living in these colonies, so why you are charging them?"