BJP, AAP in a tug of war on unauthorised colonies

New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday welcomed the Centre’s decision to introduce in the Lok Sabha a bill to give property right to residents of Delhi’s 1,728 unauthorised colonies.

Terming the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents of Unauthorised Colonies) Bill 2019 “a fraud”, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said instead of giving ownership rights to all eligible households in unauthorised colonies, the BJP is planning a “symbolic handover” of registry to about a 100 people.

The Union cabinet had on October 23 approved a scheme to grant property rights to such households According to the Centre, the scheme will benefit about 4 million people.

“According to media reports, the BJP will provide registry only to 100 residents. The rest of the people will get registry only after the elections. This makes it clear the BJP is also tracing the footsteps of the Congress. The Congress had distributed provisional certificates in a similar manner just before the 2008 election. BJP is going to hoodwink people with a symbolic handover of registry for 100 people. It is clear that the BJP has no intention to provide registry and this is just an election gimmick,” AAP said in a statement.

The Kejriwal-led party demanded that registry be given to all eligible households in Delhi before elections. Assembly polls in the national Capital are scheduled early next year.

The BJP, on the other hand, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri for proposing the Bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

“Now all constraints of giving ownership rights to the people living in unauthorised colonies have been removed and work on registry will start soon. The lies of AAP have once again been exposed because Kejriwal was saying all over Delhi that the BJP is not going to bring any bill in Parliament. The Centre proved them wrong,” Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said.