Regularising illegal colonies poses many plights
Thousands of illegal colonies have already sprung up in the national capital region (NCR) and regularising them has been highly bothering the administration. Since these unauthorised colonies in Delhi have been a home to over 40 lakhs of people, the Delhi government had started the regularisation drive.
At present there are around 1,639 such colonies in and around Delhi with most located in areas including Najafgarh, Nangloi, Badarpur, Vasant Kunj, Palam Road, Burari, New Gurgaon and also along the floodplains of the River Yamuna.
Government fails to keep up the promise
The Congress government had promised five years ago that the colonies will be regularised and provisional regularization certificates will be issued to more than 1,200 colonies. However, the promise still remains far from being fulfilled.
Till now, about 895 such colonies – 312 on private land and 585 on government land – have been regularised as per the notification issued in 2012.
The 312 colonies on private land have been officially cleared but the plot allottees on private lands will still have to wait for the municipal bodies to prepare layout plans. And those on government land are still required to pay charges for the land to earn the legal tag.
Formation of unauthorised colonies
In local terms, the illegal colonies are known as kachi colonies. The administration, police and civic authorities generally turn a blind eye towards these colonies when they are in their initial stages of formation, which otherwise would not have encouraged so many of them to emerge. From the beginning stage itself, the government and the civic authorities have to deal strictly with such encroachment activities.
Adding to this, some small-time property dealers and land owners, promote illegal colonisation by attracting low-income people who can’t afford to buy plot or housing unit in developed areas like Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, etc owing to their exorbitant rates. People are also ignorant as they do not think of long-term while stepping into such activities. Most of these illegal constructions in Delhi-NCR have emerged in the past one or two decades when the awareness level among the people was quite low.
At present, with the value of land increasing to a great extent, it has made difficult for the government to act against the encroachers as the encroachers who had settled down in these areas are worried to lose their assets while the politicians are scared to lose their votes.
