Delhi CM Rekha Gupta Seeks Rs 100 Crore from Centre to Speed Up PM-Uday Scheme

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has sought Rs 100 crore from the Centre to accelerate the PM-Uday regularisation drive. Gupta wrote to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal seeking the package under the Urban Development Fund. The scheme is meant to confer ownership rights to residents living in notified unauthorised colonies in the Capital.

In April the Union government relaxed the process for about 45 lakh residents across 1,511 unauthorised colonies by moving to an “as-is-where-is” approach and dropping the requirement of an approved layout plan. Delhi’s Revenue Department has again been named the nodal agency and PM-UDAY cells will be set up in all 13 districts, each led by an Additional District Magistrate.

Funding and Implementation

A statement from the Chief Minister’s Office, highlighted on Sunday, stated that the request covers three components. Under the plan, Rs 65 crore will fund DRISHTI—a technology-driven land survey and mapping system. Another Rs 25 crore will establish district- and headquarters-level PM-UDAY cells to help issue property documents within a 45-day timeline, while Rs 10 crore will fund outreach work such as workshops with Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), help desks and awareness camps.

In her letter, Gupta wrote, “The institutional framework required for implementing the scheme has already been notified and the work has commenced. Timely financial support from the Central Government will help ensure that lakhs of Delhi residents receive the benefits of property rights at the earliest and with greater ease.”

Slow Uptake and Shifts

The government stated that it shifted the application deadline to October 31 after seeing a low number of applications. The Central Government had launched the PM-UDAY scheme ahead of the 2020 Delhi elections to regularise 1,731 unauthorised colonies. At that time, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was the nodal agency, unlike earlier arrangements in which the Delhi government coordinated the process.

Up to March 31, 2026, the scheme had produced about 40,000 conveyance deeds and authorisation slips. Civic officials stated that residents still could not get building plans approved or regularise existing structures because layout plans had not been approved by the MCD and were supposed to be prepared by RWAs.

The new regulations notified in April altered this, stating that 1,511 colonies will be regularised on an “as-is, where-is” basis without requiring approved layout plans. Under these rules, the land use of all plots and buildings in these colonies will be treated as residential, and the Revenue Department has taken over from the DDA as the implementing nodal agency.

Pitfalls of Exemptions

Experts have warned that the new regularisation route has pitfalls. Under the earlier policy, residents could obtain ownership by filing documents with the DDA, but the regularisation path also depended on an MCD-approved layout plan from the local RWA that covered water-supply upgrades, sewage networks, solid-waste management and clearing overhead electricity cables.