Named after a 5,000-year-old temple, Prakash Puri area in New Palam Vihar houses 200-odd families who are living in a civic shambles.
Barely a few-minutes’ drive from upcoming Dwarka Expressway, the area lacks almost everything — right from water supply, sewerage to roads — that the government is supposed to provide.
Reason: the area is not regularised yet — meaning the area does not exist in records of the town and country planning department’s as yet and thus does not qualify for any civic amenities.
“To become eligible for government services, the locality has to be officially regularised,” said PR Santosh, a resident.
The area started developing in early 1990s when 200-odd plots were carved out here. But it was neither a privately developed
colony nor belonged to Huda or MCG. “Though the area was later taken over by
MCG in 2008, it was never regularised. As a result, though we are regularly paying all relevant taxes to MCG, we are not getting civic services, not even water supply,” said Krishan Kumar, another resident.
In 2014, a 500-metre cobbled road, connecting Jahajgarh with Prakash Puri, was built — the only infrastructure work done by any government agency in the area so far. Fed up with the government’s apathy, the residents had pooled money to lay drainage pipes and made a kuccha road. But the drains and the road built by the residents could not sustain the recent showers that left the area inundated.
“There are dozens of lanes branching out from the cobbled road. Our homes are built along those muddy lanes,” said Sant Lal, a resident.
For water, the residents depend on borewells, each 80-120-ft deep. “But the fast-depleting groundwater tables have made life difficult. Those with 80-ft
borewells have already run out of water. They are currently fetching water from their neighbours’ houses or the tube-well located on the mandir premises,” Santosh claimed.
But what is delaying the regularisation? “The area fulfils the preconditions, like it should have at least 50% occupancy, for regularisation. We had submitted an application to the chief town planner on July 17. After that a survey team visited the area on August 2. But no headway has been made since then,” he added.
When contacted chief commissioner (town planning) RK Singh said he was “vacationing” and that he was not aware of the current status of the area. Last month, when TOI had spoken to him on the same issue, he had said the matter (regularisation) was under process.
An MCG official said they did not have any water supply line going to New Palam Vihar area currently. A senior MCG official, however, said there was a plan to provide water from public stand posts. “It would cost over Rs 2.5 crore, and the proposal has been sent to the government for approval. We are awaiting for the nod,” he said.
