Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Delhi government proposed rate slabs Wednesday for granting ownership rights to people in unauthorised colonies.
The move is significant considering that the Centre and the Delhi government have both expedited efforts to give ownership rights to property owners in unauthorised colonies, a first step to regularising them. The Centre had sent a Cabinet note to Delhi government seeking comments earlier this month. According to a Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, there are over 2,000 unauthorised colonies in Delhi. The Centre and state’s scheme will cover 1,797 colonies to begin with.
While there has been tension between the two sides, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday said he was thankful to the Centre. On Tuesday, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had blamed Delhi government for delaying the regularisation process.
Kejriwal said that while they would go with any policy the Centre passed, they were keen on a few changes. The colonies have been divided into three umbrella categories — those built on government land, those on agricultural land, and those on private land.
Read | AAP govt proposes rate slabs: Don’t keep affluent colonies out of exercise, Delhi govt tells Centre
Announcing the framework under which charges would be levied — based on property circle rates — Kejriwal said the government had suggested that unauthorised colonies be put in the lowest category corresponding to the nearby area. Under the current proposal, urban development minister Satyendar Jain said, the Centre had proposed putting these colonies in the slab higher than or equal to colonies nearby.
This means that, for example, if an unauthorised colony near Defence Colony (category A in circle rates) is to be regularised, charges people will have to pay will correspond to circle rates in that category. What the Delhi government has proposed is that if there is a Category F or G (lower rates than A) authorised colony nearby, the unauthorised colony rates be fixed according to that parameter.
In a reconciliatory move, Kejriwal said: “We had sent our proposal to the Centre in 2015. The Centre has agreed on several points… Now that the Centre and state have come together, it is a very big opportunity to give people their rights immediately… We are ready to say that all the credit is theirs, the faults are ours, let us get this done. This is no time to fight. We just want Hardeep Puri to smile.”
Kejriwal also said that they are of the opinion that a “very nominal” stamp duty be charged when registering properties.
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
