AAP slams MPs over demolition drives by central agencies, BJP hits back
BJP questioned the accomplishments of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs, calling it DUSIB’s failure to relocate and rehabilitate homeless people
New Delhi
Aam Aadmi Party’s MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak, who is also the Rajinder Nagar MLA, attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its newly elected parliamentarians over demolition of illegal houses and temporary settlements across the city that are “ruining the city”.
Addressing a press conference, Pathak said that central agencies, such as the Delhi Development Authority and Indian Railways, are undertaking demolition drives and issuing vacation notices aimed at “dispossessing people living in these areas for several decades.”
Pathak said: “In the first instance, DDA undertook a large-scale demolition at Khyber Pass, under the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency in North Delhi, removing people who had living in that area for several decades. DDA falls under the Central government but the MP did not even visit the affected families over the past five days.”
He was referencing a drive that took place in the early hours of last Saturday. Over 250 houses were razed and hundreds of residents were displaced, to reclaim 15 of 32 acres belonging to the land and development office (L&DO).
He said that five days ago, hundreds of vacation notices were issued by the Railways in Patel Nagar Brar Square. “Indian Railways has pasted many such notices over several kilometres. They will start removing thousands of jhuggies along the railway lines from July 22. This area falls under the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, but the local MP has not done anything to resolve the situation. Are these steps being taken with the knowledge of the MPs?” he said.
Pathak said this will impact jhuggi dwellers in Loha Mandi, Budh Nagar, Brar Square and Patel Nagar. “AAP is trying to provide legal aid to the affected people. The two BJP MPs in these cases should intervene and help people,” he said.
The MPs concerned did not respond to requests for comment.
However, the BJP said Pathak was misleading the people of Delhi.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said: “Before posing questions to BJP MPs, Pathak should answer what the AAP has done for the poor, homeless people and jhuggi dwellers of Delhi. What is the contribution of four MPs whom the AAP nominated to the Rajya Sabha during the past seven years in any development activity of Delhi?”
“The AAP government’s department concerned, DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board), has totally failed Delhi residents by neither preparing a holistic list of jhuggi dwellers of the city nor doing anything to properly rehabilitate them. The AAP has not allowed the implementation of PM Awas Yojna in Delhi, thereby denying the homeless an opportunity to own a home of their own,” Kapoor said.