Delhi Sealing : MPD-2021 for giving relief to the people
31 01 2008Addressing a press conference, Mr. Jai Parkash Agarwal said while campaigning for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections in 2007 the BJP had promised that it would put an end to all sealing and demolition operations on coming to power in the MCD. “But,” he charged, “not a day passes when the MCD does not pull down buildings in some part of the city.”
On the other hand, Mr. Agarwal said the Congress had legislated two Bills and brought one Ordinance for the people. Also, it had passed MPD-2021 for giving relief to the people. Mr. Agarwal asserted that he would expose the real face of the BJP over the issue by bringing out the file notings made by former Union Urban Development Ministers Jagmohan, Ananth Kumar and Bandaru Dattatreya through the Right to Information Act.
Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken said the Congress had always acted in favour of the people and relaxed the building by-laws to benefit them. The Minister said it should be known to all that as per Para 16.3.2 of MPD-2021 no demolition can take place on any building up to a height of 15 metres in specified areas. “This,” he said, “means that even fifth floors of buildings up to this height cannot be pulled down.”
As for the safety aspect, Mr. Maken said, only a certificate of structural safety is needed for these buildings. He added that the Government had not allowed buildings to go higher than 15 metres as under the Delhi Fire Safety Act there are special norms for higher buildings.
On the issue of regularisation, the Minister said the Delhi Government would soon announce more concessions for the colonies. He expressed confidence that they would all be regularised within “the outer limit of six to eight months”. Even in the meantime, he said, developmental works would not stop there as they had been segregated from the issue of regularisation.
