Dikshit, who had pushed hard to regularise the colonies after the electoral debacle of the Congress in municipal polls held in April, said her government made a "historical decision" to regularise 917 colonies out of 1,639 such settlements which were provided provisional regularisation certificates.
"The city government has been able to resolve the vexed issue of unauthorised colonies as we have decided to regularise them which will benefit 40 lakh residents. We have removed the sword of demolition hanging over the unauthorised colonies," she said addressing a press conference along with all six cabinet ministers and scores of party MLAs.
The notification to this effect is expected to be issued tomorrow, Dikshit said, adding that the file has been sent to Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna.
The announcement is seen as Dikshit's preparation for the assembly polls which are due in 15 months.
Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath had yesterday given a green signal to regularise unauthorised colonies when Dikshit met him to press for early approval for their regularisation of the settlements, considered traditional votebank of the Congress in the city of 1.67 crore.
"Our stand from the very beginning was crystal clear that not a single colony would be demolished. We are grateful that the Union Minister of Urban Development Kamal Nath has been kind enough to appreciate the difficulties of the residents of unauthorised colonies," Dikshit said.
The Delhi government had completed all the ground work for regularisation of the colonies.
It had issued provisional regularisation certificates to over 1,639 unauthorised colonies ahead of assembly polls in 2008. The then Dikshit government, while distributing the certificates, had promised to regularise the colonies if Congress came to power for the third term. However, not a single colony was regularised till now.
After the Congress' defeat in municipal polls in April, Dikshit had asked all concerned departments to expedite the regularisation process. MORE
