Delhi has 369 villages which are, though, called as Urban Villages but continue to suffer from developmental inequalities. The basic infrastructure is in such a sorrow state that some villages lack even the basic facilities of dispensary, first aid or maternity home. There are no sufficient schools for higher education and whatever small numbers of schools are there, happen to face huge shortage of teachers. The quality of teaching is being deteriorated increasingly, resulting into the school showing poor performance in board exams.
 
Transport is another area which needs urgent attention. The bus services in villages are not regular and if it comes to describing roads, the lesser the better. Villages continue to face water shortage; they get water through tankers on weekly/biweekly basis. The groundwater level is decreasing every year by 20-30 feet, as a result of which both lands and farmers’ lives are being destroyed.
 
Several villages have seen no Chakbandi (redistribution of land) since 1908, causing huge scarcity of land for the residential/commercial purposes. The sections 81, 33 and 65A of Delhi Land Reforms Act have become a tool for exploiting the farmers. As per section 33, a farmer can’t sell his land if its size is less than 8 acres. Either he has to sell his entire land or can’t sell anything. More than 4000 cases are pending, under the section 81, in the Mehrauli block alone.
 
Following are some of the remedial measure:

• Augmenting the Lal Dora area of villages
• Exempting residential units in villages from paying house tax
• Minimum taxes for commercial buildings
• Applying market rates on acquisition of village land
• Making Delhi villages exempted from building bye-laws