New Delhi: The process of granting ownership rights in Delhi’s unauthorised colonies is running at a snail’s pace as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has so far handed only 338 conveyance deeds out of the total expected beneficiaries assumed to be around 40 lakh.
The online application portal for Pradhan Mantri Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi Awas Adhikar Yojana (PM-UDAY) for grant of ownership rights was launched on 16 December 2019 and as of 21 March 2020, the portal has received 2.54 lakh registrations and the DDA has granted conveyance deeds to 338 people only.
Under the provisions, the applicants have to attach documents such as General Power of Attorney, Agreement to Sell, payment and possession documents, Site Plan and GPS data along with their applications to get their registration completed. According to the DDA, 218 applicants have also been given the authorisation slips under the property rights scheme and the slow pace is due to the GIS mapping process.
“The whole process of granting property rights is complex and time-consuming. Registration on the PM-UDAY portal is just from where the whole process starts and it ends with GIS mapping. Once the GIS mapping is completed, we hand over the authorisation slip which enables the applicants to get a conveyance deed,” a senior DDA official told The Sunday Guardian.
“The slow process may be due to applicants not being aware and to deal with this problem, we have set up 50 helpdesks across the city. Apart from setting up the helpdesks, the DDA has held several awareness camps and I hope many more people will come up to complete their registrations,” the same official cited above said.
The DDA is deciding property rights on the basis of 2008 land map, and many owners who bought property after 2008 have questioned the rationale behind setting 2008 as the base year.
Ram Nivas Yadav, a resident of Najafgarh, told The Sunday Guardian: “Why has 2008 been kept as the base year? How does it make any sense that those who purchased their property in certain areas 12 years ago may be legal and not the properties that are bought last year? In one decade, everything has been changed and the number of houses in unauthoriesed colonies has almost doubled. In my view, the government should take the current year as the cut instead of 2008.”
Last year, ahead of the Delhi’s Assembly polls, the Central government opened the road to give ownership rights to more than 40 lakh people residing in 1,731 unauthorised colonies of Delhi. The notification to give ownership rights was issued on 29 October 2019, and the process continued during the Delhi polls too.