Sonia inaugurates JNNURM housing scheme for poor in Delhi

New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said Delhi as the country's capital must become 'ideal' for other metropolitan cities by overcoming the problems of 'bijli, paani and makaan', (power, water and housing) currently being faced by its burgeoning population.

She said, ''All eyes are on Delhi and so we should try to make it the ideal mega city. A lot of work has already been done like the flyovers, Metro rail and several other infrastructure projects are already underway. But we must meet the basic needs of water, housing and power first.'' Ms Gandhi was addressing a gathering, after inaugurating a low cost housing scheme 'Rajiv Ratan Awas', built under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in Bawana.

She claimed that though several developmental works have taken place during the Congress regime, the Opposition tried to find faults with it. ''We should not bother about such remarks as it is for the people to decide. Janata ki adalat sabse bada adalat hai (people's court is the biggest fora). We must do our best,'' she stressed.

Speaking on the occasion, Urban development Minister Jaipal Reddy admitted that there has been violitions of the law in land allotments for the slum dwellers, in an apparent reference to the land allotment scam. ''Laws have been flouted and we need to put the checks. It will take some time to remove the anomalies.'' He pointed out that under the Delhi Master Plan, it will be mandatory for all multi-storeyed housing complexes, to have provisions for 35 per cent low-cost houses for the weaker sections.''Be it schemes of the Government or the private builders, for every 100 flats, 350 must be built for the poor.'' Also, the slum dwellers will not be evacuated from their jhuggis unless alternate housing facilities were provided, he said.

Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said her government resolved to provide a roof to every family in Delhi by 2010.

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