HC pulls up Centre, Delhi for ‘passing the buck' on Sainik Farms regularisation
During a hearing on Wednesday, a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed the authorities were not taking any final decision on the issue and just "passing the buck", which ultimately "stops at the court".
"The basic question remains as to what the central government in consultation with the state government is doing for regularising these colonies. You have to make a final decision. It appears again that everybody is trying to pass the buck and as happens in these matters, the buck ultimately stops at the court," the bench observed.
During Wednesday's hearing, the court asked why the authorities had not been able to bring a simple legislation to mitigate the problems of the residents.
"First and last thing we want to know is: what is it that you are doing about these colonies? We can't be more clearer than this. They have been hanging fire without being able to lay a brick even for repairs and yet you are continuing to let them live the way they are for the last 10-15 years," the bench said.
Delhi HC added, "You know very well why they are existing, how they are existing till now. None of the government will do anything to mitigate the problems."
The bench also called on officers in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to sit together to decide on the fate of its residents who had petitioned the high court.
The Delhi high court had previously rapped the Delhi NCT government in March for its failure to indicate a timeline to regularise the Sainik Farm colony.
South Delhi's Sainik Farms is an unauthorised colony. The area has remained in the unauthorised status since the 1980s.
An unauthorised colony in Delhi refers to residential areas which have come up but on land that's not been approved for residential use in Delhi's master plan. Due to this, these colonies often face infrastructure issues.
As reported by The Indian Express, Delhi has around 1,800 unauthorised colonies, of which 1,731 have been slated for re-development work under the Pradhan Mantri-Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi Awas Adhikar Yojana (PM-UDAY).
However, Sainik Farms, along with Mahendru Enclave, and Anant Ram Dairy, was excluded from this list over land use violations.
(With inputs from PTI)
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