The Delhi BJP plans to meet the Union Urban Development Minister to recommend initiation of development work in unauthorised colonies that have been marked out for regularisation. The Delhi BJP, which anticipates fresh Assembly elections in the national capital, wants to focus on such colonies which could be a huge vote bank for the the party. But, leaders said the process to regularise unauthorised colonies — a BJP manifesto promise — has come to a halt because of the stringent rules required to clear the regularisation. So, leaders said, they have instead turned their attention to development in the area. “We will demand an approval to lay sewer lines and roads in these colonies,” a senior leader said. In addition, the BJP said it would demand that an ordinance be passed to bring about changes in the rules for regularisation. “It will take sometime to make the regularisation process a reality. The existing rules will not let any colony to be passed as regularised as not many of them have wider roads and space for amenities such as community centres and dispensaries. We have to look at the ground reality and amend the rules,” another senior leader said. The Delhi government too is struggling to find a way to regularise these colonies. “To fast track the process, several technicalities need to be worked out,” a government official said. Last month, the Delhi BJP had called for an expansion of scope for colonies to be legalised and had demanded that unauthorised colonies that have come up on the Delhi map by 2013 should be regularised.
