Centre to relax development norms for unauthorised colonies in Delhi

Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said the development control regulations for 1,731 unauthorised colonies in Delhi will be relaxed to get more people to benefit from the PM-UDAY scheme, which was launched in 2019 to give ownership rights to residents of these colonies.

The revised norms will allow a large number of property owners in these colonies who have got ownership rights (conveyance deed or authorisation slip from the Delhi Development Authority) to get their building plans approved from the municipal corporations, according to ministry officials.

While addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Puri said that a number of measures have been taken by the ministry to address the bottlenecks in implementation of important schemes or policies in the national capital.

Speaking about the PM-UDAY scheme, Puri said, “The matter of regularisation of unauthorised colonies had been pending since 2006. We passed legislation in 2019 to address this issue and give ownership rights to property owners in unauthorised colonies. In spite of Covid, a lot of work has been done in the past two years. But there was a need for relaxation in development control norms to make it (the scheme) successful. We have been working on this and have held consultations with stakeholders. This will benefit around 6-8 lakh families living in these colonies.”

Also Read| Centre to amend law for swift implementation of land pooling policy in Delhi

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and BJP MLA and leader of the opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri were also present at the press conference.

The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2019, was notified just before the assembly elections in Delhi in 2020. The decision to relax regulations for PM-UDAY comes ahead of the municipal elections in Delhi that are scheduled to be held next month.

The biggest problem being faced by the beneficiaries of PM-UDAY is that they are not able to get their building plans approved by the municipal corporations.

Manish Gupta, vice chairman of Delhi Development Authority, said, “To get building plans sanctioned, a colony must have an approved layout. It has been decided that we will allow layout plan preparation for a part of the unauthorised colonies if they meet the minimum planning requirement. Those properties which are within 30 metres distance from a 6-metre wide road can apply for layout. In extremely congested colonies, we have given an option for redevelopment wherein people can avail higher Floor Area Ratio.”

As per the proposed amendments, which will be notified soon, the Will document (which was mandatory till now) will no longer be required to process applications for ownership rights.

Gupta said, “There are a lot of applications, around 1000 plus, which are yet to be processed as the owners don’t have the Will document.”

Gupta added, “In colonies that have come up on private land, property owners were given ownership of land based on the building footprint. People were not given ownership of vacant land portions even if the person had the documents for the entire plot. It has now been decided to give ownership of the entire plot.”