OREANDA-NEWS. To improve the living conditions of the people of JJ clusters of Delhi, all the 685 such clusters will be taken up for redevelopment in the next five years. This issue was discussed at length at a meeting convened by Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu today. Secretaries of the Ministries of Urban Development and Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Vice-Chairman of DDA, Principle Secretary(UD), Govt. of Delhi, Chief Executive of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board and other concerned senior officers attended the meeting. 

Shri Venkaiah Naidu said that Delhi needs to be made slum-free to enable seamless urban development. Responding to the issue of operation of mafia elements coming in the way of slum redevelopment, he said that such elements shall be weeded out with an iron hand.

During the meeting, it was brought to the notice of Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu that earlier attempts for redevelopment of JJ clusters could not progress due to lack of guidelines in the matter besides vested interests seeking to subvert such attempts.

After detailed discussions, it was decided that:

1.Necessary Guidelines would be evolved in the next week jointly by the central and Delhi governments;

2.Redevelopment of JJ clusters of Delhi could be considered based on the models followed in Gujarat, Mumbai and Chennai as appropritate;

3.Cut-off date of 1.6.2014 will be considered for identifying the beneficiaries in JJ clusters.

Out of the total Delhi population of 1.64 cr as per 2011 Census, 18 lakhs live in slums. DUSIB has identified 685 JJ clusters with 3.50 lakh households occupying 800 hectares of land. As per the Delhi Government’s policy, DUSIB seeks to enhance population density of 900 persons per hectare through construction of Ground + 13 units. This would entail construction of about 3 lakh housesin 320 hectares of available land. About 55,000 houses are at various stages of construction taken up under JNNURM.