Centre seeks government reply on illegal colonies

Seeks views on recovery of public land; Sisodia asks urban development department to prepare a comprehensive chart

In a significant development that will have a direct bearing on the municipal elections in the city due next year, the Union development ministry has sought comments of the AAP government on regularisation of 1,735 unauthorised colonies in Delhi. The Centre has specifically sought the city government’s views on recovery of public land and proposed that Sainik Farms, Anant Ram Dairy and Mahendra Enclave among others should not be termed as affluent colonies. Even the cutoff date for regularisation of unauthorised colonies is being fixed till January 1, 2015.

Following the Centre’s direction, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has asked his urban development department to prepare a comprehensive chart comparing regulations of the Union government’s proposed draft with that of the city administration after consulting all stakeholders.

The Centre has specified that all affluent colonies, including Sainik Farms, Anant Ram Dairy and Mahendra Enclave, be treated as unauthorised colonies. After consulting the Delhi government, MCDs, DDA and all stakeholders, the Centre said there was no merit in categorising some colonies as affluent and others as non-affluent.

The Centre said that affluent people could be residing in any unauthorised colonies and one could consider determining affluent residents based on plot size criteria and having higher charges for the public land, penalties and development charges. A draft to this effect prepared by the Centre said it would be more appropriate to determine affluent residents based upon the plot size instead of colonies in which they reside with a view to fix increasing rate of government land as per larger size of the plot.

Quoting the draft, a source said the cost of public land would be recovered on the basis of existing circle rate of properties with penalty amount to be higher depending on the size of the plot. The cost of public land would be reportedly recovered at the rate of five per cent of the circle rate up to 100 square metres; eight per cent up to 101-200 square metres and 201 and above up to 12 per cent. This would include an additional 50 per cent as damage charges. Besides, 50 per cent of the total cost of land would also be recovered as penalty charges. If the person fails to deposit penalty amount within six months, he or she would invite an additional 10 per cent fine of the total penalty.

On the other hand, the Delhi government has proposed to waive off regularisation charges for F, G and H categories of colonies. The city government had proposed that in colonies which existed on public land in category A, occupants will have to pay Rs 18,000 per sq metre for 100 sqm plot and penalty for plot will be Rs 9,000 per sqm while category H colony will have to pay Rs 500 per sqm for the same. Category A reflects the most premium segment while Category ‘H is for the base level colonies.

The land rate for 100 sqm plot is fixed Rs 15,000 per sqm and penalty will be Rs 7,500 per sqm in category B type colonies. Similarly, unauthorised colonies falling in category C will have to pay Rs 12,000 as land cost and Rs 6,000 as penalty for every 100 sq metre plot. The land rate for houses built on plots bigger than 200 metres would be Rs 21,000 per sq metre and Rs 10,500 per sq metre as penalty cost. The land rate for 100 sq metre plot would be Rs 9,000 while penalty would be Rs 4,500 per sq metre in category D.