Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS) Leader of Opposition in Delhi Legislative Assembly V.K. Malhotra as well as Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillors from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday met urban development minister S. Jaipal Reddy to demand measures to protect residential premises in unauthorized colonies from sealing. A delegation of municipal councillors headed by leader of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) house Subhash Arya met Reddy and gave him a memorandum demanding an ordinance as early as possible to protect residential unauthorised colonies (village areas, their extensions, slum clusters, farm houses, religious institutions and godowns) from sealing.

Malhotra also separately met the minister to demand the ordinance “to give permanent relief to Delhi’s people from demolition and sealing”.

“The government enforced the Delhi Laws Special Provisional Act on Sep 15, 2007 to save people of Delhi from sealing and demolition but its term has already expired on Dec 31, 2008,” Arya told reporters after his meeting.

The act was brought about to safeguard people’s unauthorised houses and commercial establishment that would have otherwise be demolished in concurrence with the Delhi Master Plan 2021.

Arya said people from different parts of country had been coming to Delhi in search of livelihood for years, thereby increasing the pressure of housing.

“The reason for this was that central government could not balance the demand and supply of housing and commercial space. This problem has now taken a gigantic magnitude,” he said.

He further said the central government was deceiving Delhi’s people with temporary provisions for relief that do not allow the local body to sanction building plans or allow to regularize additional construction before 2006.

The delegation included Ved Prakash Gupta, Ram Krishan Singhal, Rajesh Gahlot, Divya Jaiswal, Vijender Gupta (MCD standing committee chief), Yogendra Chandolia, Prithvi Raj Sahni, Moolchand Chawla, Mahendra Nagpal, Meera Aggrawal, Sarita Chaudhary and Usha Mehta.

The group stressed the need for a permanent solution such that building plans could be sanctioned, property be transferred and the councillors’ fund be utilized for the development of the unauthorized colonies.