Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that the scale of development of the unauthorized colonies in the last five years has been the highest in the last 70 years and the state government has spent over Rs 8,000 crore on developing unauthorized colonies.
The Chief Minister said this at a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat on Wednesday.
Kejriwal presented comparative figures to the media of the expenditure made by the previous governments on the development of the unauthorized colonies and the expenditure on the same during his tenure, which is eight times higher than the previous terms.
He further said that that being the capital of India, Delhi has a huge influx of migrants from all over the country in search of employment and better opportunities. In the last 30-40 years, Delhi has been significant in terms of migration of people from other states in large numbers.
"This has resulted in the set-up of unauthorized colonies in the city in large numbers. The previous governments did nothing to improve the conditions of these unauthorized colonies and the people had to continue to live in miserable conditions. Since the formation of the government in 2015, we have worked extensively for the progress, development, and regularization of unauthorized colonies," said Kejriwal.
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The Chief Minister stated that the Delhi government spent Rs 8,147 crore on developing unauthorized colonies and he further presented the data regarding all the developmental works carried out by the state government in the unauthorized colonies in the last five years.
"During the tenure of the previous government from 2004-2009, only 309 unauthorized colonies out of a total of 1797 colonies, had properly developed sewage systems and roads and Rs. 811 crores were spent on this work. During our tenure from 2015 to 2019, we constructed proper sewage systems and roads in 1281 colonies, and the funds spent were Rs. 4312 crores. The water pipelines were laid only in 45 colonies from 2002 to 2009 and in 245 colonies from 2009-2014. During our tenure from 2015 to 2019, water pipelines were laid in 579 colonies with total spending of Rs. 391 crores," said Kejriwal.
Water pipelines have been laid in 1,554 colonies until now. 250 colonies are left, out of which water pipelines cannot be laid in 40-50 colonies since they come under the jurisdiction of ASI and forest area, but the laying of pipelines will be completed in 200 colonies in the next one year.
"During 2009-2014, only 34 colonies had sewer pipelines installed, we have installed sewer pipelines in 903 colonies with a total expenditure of Rs. 3444 crores. Sewer pipelines have been laid in a total of 1130 unauthorized colonies and pipelines in the rest colonies will be installed in the next 2-3 years. During the tenure of the previous government from 2009-2014, Rs. 1146 crores were spent on the unauthorized colonies. In our current tenure, Rs. 8147 crores have been spent on the development of the unauthorized colonies," the Chief Minister added
Kejriwal further asserted that the Delhi Government has transformed the living conditions of the residents of unauthorised colonies.
"The upcoming assembly elections in Delhi will be contested based on all the progress that has been made in Delhi in the last five years. People of Delhi will be voting for the AAP because of all the work that it has done in Delhi. We have worked hard to develop the unauthorized colonies that BJP should not even appeal to the people in the unauthorized colonies to vote for them," said Kejriwal.
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