Delhi Cabinet ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj on Sunday visited slum clusters in the national Capital and accused the BJP of conspiring to remove slum dwellers while the Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri slammed the Arvind Kejriwal government saying AAP leaders are shedding crocodile tears for the slum dwellers these days. “If slum dwellers are removed anywhere in Delhi, flats are ready in Delhi for their rehabilitation,” he said.
On Sunday, Atishi visited B R camp slum while her Cabinet colleague Bharadwaj met residents of slums near the Safdarjung Flying Club in south Delhi.
“The BJP-led central government is conspiring to raze the slum areas of Delhi and relocate its residents 40 to 50 km away from their homes. AAP and (Delhi) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are standing with them (slum dwellers),” Atishi said, during her visit to the slum cluster.
She said, “Today, I visited BR Camp, located just behind the Race Course, where approximately 500 houses are currently occupied. The BJP had promised residents, before every election, that it would provide a house in place of the existing houses they are living in. Residents of BR Camp showed the forms they had filled out before the elections to secure homes from the BJP”.
“ A notice by the DDA has been pasted on the houses, informing residents that their houses will be demolished. They have been told that some of them will get houses in Narela, which is about 50 kilometers from here. However, the people of BR Camp are sure that they want a house where they are already living because that is what the law also says,” Atishi added.
Echoing similar views, Bharadwaj said that drivers, maids, cooks, etc have been living in Delhi’s JJ clusters with their families.
Taking a dig at the AAP government, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said the Modi government has built thousands of houses for the poor at Kathputli Colony, Kalkaji and Jailerwala Bagh in Delhi, but Arvind Kejriwal should tell how many houses he has given to the poor during his tenure.