The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Centre over “serving demolition notices” to the slum dwellers of Delhi.
Party national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said that the Central government has started pasting notices outside many slums that their houses will be demolished.
Terming the notices being served is against the basic principle of the constitution, he said that the government is making a full proof plan of action for the slum dwellers; this policy will ensure that no slum dwellers' house will be demolished.
Explaining it further, he said that one such notice which was put at various houses of the slum dwellers of the Tughlakabad area noted that they have to evacuate their house by September 11 and after this, their houses will be demolished. “At the same time in some other areas notices were issued which noted that by September 14 the slum dwellers will need to evacuate their houses. We will approach the Supreme Court and also fight this battle on the streets,” he said.
"The Kejriwal government is the first government in the country which accepted the slum dwellers of the national capital as its family members. Kejriwal is not only the Chief Minister in the eyes of Delhi's slum dwellers but also an elder brother. He will never allow anyone to make people living in slums to suffer," said Chadha.
Chadha said, "On behalf of the AAP, I want to make it very clear that the Kejriwal government will not accept any such action against the slum dwellers. The slum dwellers should not worry because Kejriwal who is your elder brother will not allow any displacement of the slum dwellers in the city."
Reacting to the charges, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Legislative Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that the allegations made by Chadha are baseless.
Bidhuri said that for 15 years, the Congress government through Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojana and for the last 6 years the AAP government through Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana (MMAY), have fooled slum dwellers in the name of giving houses. “If the AAP government really had the intention of working in the interest of the slum dwellers, then they had enough time for six years to rehabilitate the slum dwellers but it did not allow the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to be implemented and then announced the MMAY on the same lines and cheated the slum dwellers,” he said.
“Even after taking Rs. 11.25 crore from the Railways for rehabilitation of slums, the Delhi government did not work and now their ministers are doing drama of tearing notice and accusing the BJP. The people of Delhi also know that the slum dwellers are being given houses under the Modi government's "Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan" scheme,” he added