Government mulls asking DUSIB to shift residents

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government is mulling requesting lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal to hand over Kathputli Colony to the  Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) for rehabilitation of its displaced residents, sources said.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), of which Mr Baijal is the chairperson, had demolished the colony in October 2017 for redevelopment and the incident triggered 
violence.

The DDA had handed over rehabilitation of the Kathputli Colony, in west Delhi, to a private company, Raheja Developers, in 2007.

An official close to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that no work has been done in the colony in the past nine years and the government proposes to ask Mr Baijal to hand over the colony’s rehabilitation work to DUSIB.

“The 13 acres of land (Kathputli Colony) worth Rs 1,000 crore was handed over to Raheja Developers for Rs 6 crore and they have not done anything in the past nine years. This is a scam,” the official said.

On Thursday, Mr Kejriwal had written to Mr Baijal asking him to hand over 333 slum clusters on DDA land in the city to the Delhi government for rehabilitation.

“Of the 13 acres of Kathputli Colony, a huge portion of land will be used by the private builder (Raheja Developers) for construction and sale of a large number of flats and commercial space in open market to private people in this prime location of Delhi,” Mr Kejriwal had written in his letter to Mr Baijal.

The official said the developer would earn a “profit of Rs 700 crore” through this and said that if handed over to the government, they would make more flats available to the public and save crores of rupees of public money.