UNFULFILLED PROMISES Work has lost its steam because of political turmoil, technical issues

Development work in the 1,000-odd regularised colonies has almost come to a standstill, all because of the political turmoil in the city over the past two months.

The work to provide basic amenities to lakhs of people of living in these colonies had started in late 2012 and early 2013. But sources say the effort has lost steam due to “technical issues” and lack of political vision.

This, when all three political parties had promised to provide good infrastructure in their poll manifestos.

The Delhi government had engaged five agencies — Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), department of irrigation and flood control (I&FC), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), public works department (PWD) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) — for these works. The agencies have been allocated ` 675 crore in 2013-2014 financial year for several projects. But sources said the work is far from being complete.

The Congress government had distributed provisional regularisation certificates to 1,639 unauthorised colonies before the 2008 assembly elections. The government had taken nearly four years to announce the regularisation of 895 colonies and had later regularised 91 more colonies. The party had promised to regularise the remaining colonies if it returned to power in 2013.

“The Congress government regularised almost 1,000 colonies in 2012 and 2013. But there are just about 70 colonies where development work was carried out properly. About 580 of these colonies had come up on government land and another 300 came up on private land but have some plots of government land,” said a senior Delhi government official, requesting anonymity.

Sources said unless the title of the plots of the colonies on government land are transferred to the civic agencies, the agencies cannot start development works. “The title will only be transferred only after the union government notifies the regularisation, which has not happened due to other technical complexities,” said a revenue department official.

SOURCE:http://paper.hindustantimes.com/