New Delhi: With the Aam Aadmi Party having won the hearts and minds of most residents of Delhi through their free water and power scheme, and work in the field of school education and primary health via mohalla clinics, the Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on a new law for granting ownership rights to the citizens of 1,731 unauthorised colonies to see it through in the upcoming assembly elections.
It is for this reason that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first public meeting on Sunday at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday in the run up to the polls was termed the “Dhanyawad Rally”.
Law enabling regularisation passed by parliament recently
The meeting came in the backdrop of the passage of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Public Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Bill, 2019 in Lok Sabha on November 28 and Rajya Sabha on December 4.
Speaking on the legislation, Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri stated in Parliament that it would pave the way for providing ownership rights to the residents of Delhi’s unauthorised colonies.
Puri had stated that the new law would provide a special provision for Delhi by recognising the property rights of ownership or transfer or mortgage in favour of residents of such unauthorised colonies who are possessing properties on the basis of power of attorney, agreement to sale, will, possession letter, or any other documents, including documents evidencing payment of consideration.
Also read: Cabinet Okays Bill Granting Ownership Rights to Residents of Delhi’s Unauthorised Colonies
The legislation was brought in to allow levy of stamp duty and registration charges on the amount mentioned in the conveyance deed or authorisation slip issued by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and payment of any stamp duty and registration charges on any previous sale transactions made prior to the last transaction.
Delhi government accused of lack of seriousness
The Union minister had also accused the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi of seeking time till 2021 to complete this task and the earlier Congress government in Delhi of making “half-hearted” efforts in 2008 to regularise these unauthorised colonies.
The minister said the mapping process of over 600 such colonies have been completed and the whole process will end by the end of December this year after which the images would be uploaded on a newly-created portal.
‘Mapping of unauthorised colonies to be completed this month end’
Puri also disclosed that the mapping process of over 600 unauthorised colonies has been completed and the whole process will end by the end of December this year. After this, he said, the images would be uploaded on a newly-created portal.
After the passage of the Bill in Parliament, the Delhi unit of BJP decided to try and garner support through this issue and began publicising it. A decision was then taken to call the Prime Minister to speak about it before that the party ostensibly “collected” a total of 11 lakh signatures from residents of unauthorised colonies thanking Modi for the new law.
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Much at stake politically
But a bigger effort of the saffron party has been towards winning over the support of nearly 40 lakh to 50 lakh residents residing in these colonies through the move. As such, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari revealed that members of concerned Resident Welfare Associations of these colonies would be invited for the PM’s rally.
Also, ahead of the PM’s rally, BJP leaders addressed nearly 350 street-corner meetings and took out marches in all the unauthorised colonies to celebrate the “historic decision”. The youth wing of the party took out motorcycle rallies in the all the Assembly constituencies to raise awareness about the issue.
Also read: Ahead of Polls, Centre Approves Regularisation of Unauthorised Delhi Colonies
Modi said law will benefit the landless
The party also formed teams of its local leaders to visit these colonies and spread the word about the new law and its benefits to the residents. These teams were also deputed to collect signatures in support of the move and these signatures were then presented to the PM.
During the rally, Modi also spoke about how his government has brought schemes for the landless in Delhi. “This is a new dawn for the people of Delhi. Both Houses gave nod to uplift the landless people of Delhi. The people who have kept the rights away from the people of Delhi can now see the joy on your faces,” he said.
AAP questions why registry of properties has not started
However, AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of not being serious about the issue of regularisation of colonies and only using it as a political plank. He asked why were people not being able to get their properties registered if the regularisation process was really genuine.
“What happened to registry? People living in unauthorised colonies have been cheated again. People expected the registry to start today,” he said in response to the PM’s rally speech.
Kerjiwal accused the Centre of “cheating” residents of unauthorised colonies yet again by still not clearing the path for registration of their properties.
But, he added that this was nothing new as political parties in Delhi have been known to provide lip service on the issue but not been keen on passing real benefits to the residents of unauthorised colonies. “Earlier Congress would make false promises, now BJP does the same.”
‘Development works done, opened doors for regularisation’
But Kejriwal has assured the citizens that since the necessary development works have been done in these colonies, the process of registration of properties there would begin soon. “We got all development works done and now we would get the registry done,” he said.
Taking a dig at Modi, he also quipped that while he expected that the process of registration would be launched with his speech, even that did not happen. “They were claiming for the last six months that the process of registration would start, but it still has not.”
Kejriwal also charged that the entire exercise was a ploy to fool the citizens as BJP is now saying that only 100 property owners of such colonies will receive registration papers before the assembly elections.
The chief minister cautioned people against the “bad intentions” of the BJP, which he said is only interested in “deceiving the people”.