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BJP leader Manoj Tiwari breaks seal of East Delhi house, says municipal campaign corrupt
Manoj Tiwari says crackdown on buildings allegedly flouting rules is arbitrary.
BJP Delhi president Manoj Tiwari on Sunday broke the sealed lock of a house in Gukulpur village of north-east Delhi, saying he was protesting against municipal officials’ “pick-and-choose” policy of acting against properties allegedly flouting building rules.
“Only one house in the lane, which I visited on Sunday, was sealed by the authorities. Why were others spared? This is corruption. Officials are sealing properties according to their whims and fancies. This should stop,” Tiwari said.
“I have broken the seal of a house in Gokulpuri and I will not stop here. I will go to every locality where illegal sealing is being done. I have taken a pledge; I will not tolerate any ‘pick and choose’ action. This (sealing) is facilitating corruption. Municipal officials are indulging in corruption in the name of sealing by the monitoring committee,” Tiwari said about the house reportedly sealed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on the basis of the order of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.
He said there were 5,000 houses in Gokulpur village, but only 200 were served notices.
KJ Rao, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee, said he was not aware of the matter. However, he maintained, the committee will apprise the Supreme Court of the incident. “If it has happened, it is clearly a contempt of court, which mandates three months’ imprisonment. We will report the matter to the court,” he said.
Ranbir Singh, commissioner, EDMC, could not be reached for a comment despite repeated attempts.
Tiwari’s action led to a political slugfest, with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal taking to Twitter to blame the BJP for the sealing. He said the party is befooling people on the issue.
Retweeting a video of a news channel in which Tiwari was allegedly seen breaking the lock, Kejriwal posted, “They seal themselves in the morning and break locks in the evening. Do they feel people are fools? After note-banning and GST, the BJP has ruined Delhi with the sealing.”
Senior Delhi Congress leader and former Delhi minister Haroon Yusuf also said Tiwari is playing politics over sealing.
“Who is he trying to fool? His party—BJP—is in charge of the municipal corporations for 11 years. Had they been so serious about the issue, they would have found a solution by now and prevented the sealing. They are just playing dirty political game,” he said.
