The process of granting ownership to residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies is “fast gaining pace,” according to officials of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the designated nodal agency for the project in the city.

The first set of 20 applicants who completed the registration process were granted ownership rights on January 4 ahead of the Assembly elections; as of February 27, the DDA has handed out nearly 300 conveyance deeds to residents of unauthorised colonies.

“A total of 292 applicants have been granted ownership rights, which includes 164 conveyance deeds and 128 authorisation slips. Once the verification process is completed, conveyance deeds are handed out for government land while authorisation slips are issued for private land,” said a senior DDA official.

The online application portal for the grant of ownership rights was launched on December 16. As of February 27, it has received over 2.32 lakh registrations; and 1,649 completed applications have been received, as per the urban body.

“Registering on the portal is only the first step. After this, applicants are required to obtain their respective geo-coordinates. They can approach agencies engaged by the DDA for the purpose of GIS mapping and once this is done applicants can continue the process with the ID that is sent to them. The entire process might be slightly time-consuming but only those applications which are complete will be processed,” another DDA official said.

Residents of unauthorised colonies who have completed the entire application process are likely to be granted ownership rights within 180 days.

Apart from the 50 helpdesks set up by the land-owning agency to assist interested stakeholders, the DDA has held four awareness camps across the city, including in Raja Vihar, Suraj Park, Massodpur and Patel Garden, Matiala.

“The main purpose behind organising the camps is to have a one-on-one interaction with the resident welfare associations, and the residents of the unauthorised colonies. These interactions help in explaining the entire procedure to them and get feedback on issues they might be facing. The camps are being held in addition to the helpdesks already set up,” the official added.

Officials maintained that the process of granting ownership rights continued even during election period as “requisite approvals were sought and due process was followed”.

DDA Vice-Chairman Tarun Kapoor said: “Our processing centres are in place and we want to speed things up. We want to hand out the conveyance deeds and authorisation slips to all the over two lakh applicants who have registered at the earliest. We are also holding camps to motivate people to complete the applications. In the coming days we are also going to increase the number of processing centres.”

In 2008, a total of 1,797 colonies had been identified as unauthorised; the current grant of rights excludes 66 colonies deemed “affluent” at that time.