Amnesty for 700 more unauthorised colonies to take 6 months

Delhi government said the process of sending the file to Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna’s office had been delayed due to procedural matters.

“The file for notifying regularisation of 917 unauthorised colonies couldn’t be sent on Wednesday for Lieutenant-Governor’s approval because of some procedural requirements. It will be sent on Thursday now,’’ Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said.

These colonies house close to 40 lakh people and the civic agencies are expected to take up work to provide basic infrastructure in these colonies.

The chief minister also said they would now begin work on speeding up regularisation of the remaining 700 colonies.

“Regarding the colonies that are yet to be regularised, our government has written to Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath the other such colonies that are already in existence should also be regularised. After all, how can we forcibly remove them now? We are confident the other colonies will also be regularised,” Dikshit said.

Dikshit also met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday to convey her gratitude for allowing regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

Meanwhile, senior government officials claimed that the process of regularising the remaining colonies would take another six months. “There are around 157 colonies, which are located on forest land and another 47 colonies, which are located near protected monuments. Besides this, some colonies are scattered and do not have the built-up area required for them to be

... contd.