Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday said he had no answer to how the municipal corporations of Delhi would deal with the regularisation process of 16,000-odd colonies in the national capital. The governments decision to legalise the unauthorised colonies in Delhi was based on ground realities,but somebody could allege that this constituted a presumptive loss to the exchequer,Nath said at a seminar on Performance Reporting for Urban Local Bodies,organised by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Cabinet in 2007 decided to regularise over 16,000 unauthorised colonies and some of them are on government land. Someone may say,that if these colonies are regularised it will cause loss to the government. We can blame bad planning,Master Plan or pressure of growing population as reasons for these colonies coming up. But can someone tell us what is the way out? he said. Pointing out that these colonies were more than 25 years old and the people living there had been paying their water and electricity bills,the minister said the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act,2007,was introduced to provide relief to such localities and the process could not have been left midway. He said the 40 lakh people living in these colonies could not have been removed. If someone can remove them,I would be happy to give them this assignment. But it is just not possible. If I am questioned about the regularisation and told it is a bad idea,I will have no reply. I have no idea how the municipal corporations will deal with regularising these colonies. Who do you hold responsible for this? The town planner or the enforcement authorities? Nath said. The minister claimed that this problem was not only limited to Delhi because encroachment of government land has been a common problem all over the country. Nath said urban agencies across the country face this reality and no political party can remove the unauthorised colonies. Look at Bangalore,Nagpur and Hyderabad. See how much trespass is there on government land. Who am I to hold accountable for this trespass on government land? Every municipal body has serious encroachment (problems), he said. The minister said the challenge was to do things transparently because the question was what would look proper 10 years later. Land monetisation is important as it is getting continuously encroached upon. But this needs to be done transparently. Public sectors are sitting on large chunks of land which can be used in a more resourceful manner, he said.
