New Delhi, July 29: Amid criticism of the guidelines of Delhi's master plan issued by the Centre yesterday, five of the seven city BJP MPs today came out in strong defence of the move at a press conference where Jagmohan, formerly in-charge of Union Urban Development was conspicuous by his absence. Led by Delhi BJP president and MP Madan Lal Khurana, the party parliamentarians argued that the step was the best way of resolving the capital's problems "inherited" as a result of "lack of vision" of earlier central governments and challenged the critics to present any better formula.

"There was no other way left. Unauthorised colonies have been coming up over the last four decades because of lack of planning and envisioning of the growth of population in Delhi," Khurana said. He said as the population grew by four lakh per year requiring at least one lakh additional housing units per annum, the Centre-run land-owning agency Delhi Development Authority (DDA) built only 7,000-8,000 additional units annually.

The gap between demand and supply led to creation of unauthorised colonies.

V K Malhotra, who is also BJP spokesman, said one crore people currently lived in unauthorised colonies. "Anyone thinking of making them homeless by destroying their dwelling units would be a dictator or a saddist," he said, asserting that after implementation of the Central move "Delhi will be better place to live in".

Bureau Report