COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: POLITICS OF ILLEGAL COLONIES

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: POLITICS OF ILLEGAL COLONIES:

The regularisation of unauthorised colonies seems to be a very potent vote catcher. Parkash Singh Badal knew it too well when he announced his regularisation drive that was the tipping point ahead of this year’s assembly election, that he won. The decision was taken in December by the incumbent government – chaired by him – where he declared that local municipal institutions will curve out identification and demarcation process which will be followed by regularising them and their development programmes will be treated at par with other localities. However, the regularisation endeavour of Punjab government has a catch and a price! The property holders in the unlawful colonies have to pay a development charge of 75 per cent of the property price in exchange for restoring legality of the colonies. It also restates that at least a majority of the owners must deposit the charge for the government to extend the facility. Predictably, there are very few takers to this proposal. The people residing in the illegal colonies form a major chunk of votes, too precious for the incumbent governments to loose. Bhupender Singh Hooda and Parkash Singh Badal realised it too well, and so did Sheila Dixit – all hell bent on speeding up the infrastructural development in the areas where the illegal colonies are located. It is a trend line in which regularisation of unauthorised colonies remains the dominant force behind the campaigns.   

Read more:  http://prasoonsmajumdar.blogspot.in/2012/08/politics-of-illegal-colonies.html