Unauthorised colonies: As Centre sharpens attack on AAP govt, CM says process began in 2015

Centre’s announcement on giving people in unauthorised colonies ownership rights will touch one in five Delhiites. Now begins the process — and the politics

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s “thank you” note to the Centre over its decision to grant ownership rights to residents of over 1,700 unauthorised colonies in the national capital, came with a rider.

Kejriwal thanked the Centre for “accepting the November 2015 proposal of the Delhi government” to regularise these colonies while contending that the BJP can walk away with the credit for “all the good work” that has happened in the city, and the AAP wouldn’t mind. “Let’s not get into the credit game. We are congratulating the Centre and they should accept it… I can respond in detail on the factors behind the delay but there’s a saying in English that all’s well that ends well,” Kejriwal said at a press conference minutes after the Cabinet briefing. “But people will benefit once the registration process begins. If that does not happen, then people will feel that it was done aimed at the elections.”

The statement suggested that while he is in no mood to shed the conciliatory image he has developed of late, as a party the AAP will push the message among the electorate that the regularisation process is a culmination of a process set in motion by the party right after taking office in 2015.

“If it was in the hands of the Centre all along, why did they not do this earlier? Plus BJP hasn’t said anything about the deadline; when will people be able to register their properties?” said a senior AAP leader.

In the briefing after the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister Hardeep Puri however blamed the Delhi government squarely for delays. “The Prime Minister inducted me in the cabinet in 2017, and since then I have made several attempts to encourage the Delhi government to fulfil their responsibility to identify these colonies… After a High Court decision, a committee was formed to look into regularisation. When we wrote to Delhi government about demarcation, the CM said he needed two more years. We realised they will not do anything and decided to take initiative,” he said.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar took the same line: “In 2008, the previous government took a decision to regularise these colonies but neither the Congress government nor the AAP government implemented it. Now, the entire responsibility of implementing this decision has been given to the DDA.”

For both parties, votes from unauthorised colonies, home to a large Purvanchali population, can make or break political fortunes. AAP’s overwhelming win in the 2015 assembly polls had much to do with the support extended by people in such colonies.

“We invested Rs 6,000 crore in the last five years to develop these colonies,” Kejriwal said Wednesday. “People will get the actual benefit (of regularisation) only once they receive the registry. Until then, people may think it is an effort to woo them before elections. Delhi government is ready to undertake the registration process as early as possible once the notification is done by the Centre. Revenue department will set up camps and the process will be completed as early as possible.”

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