Ahead of general elections which are scheduled to take place in 2019, the Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to raise the issues pertaining to sealing and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the national Capital.
Alleging that a large section of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was residing in areas like — Okhla and his Parliamentary constituency of north east Delhi, State president Manoj Tiwari has requested Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to take concrete measures to deport them from the city. Speaking to The Pioneer, Delhi BJP office bearers said that Tiwari has demanded the NRC process should start from Okhla which allegedly has the maximum population of illegal immigrants. This, however, comes in the wake of faceoff between Tiwari and the AAP MLA from Okhla, Amanatullah Khan, during the opening ceremony of Signature Bridge last week. At the event, Khan had pushed Tiwari, triggering a scuffle at the venue.
“I have requested the Union Home Minister for NRC in Delhi. I will also be writing to him for the same. For safety and security of Delhiites, it is important to send every illegal Bangladeshi back from the city,” said Tiwari, adding that the Home Ministry has also been apprised of the “illegal occupations” in areas like Seelampur, Jaffrabad and Mustafabad where thousands of Bangladeshis have been residing. Notably, the NRC or the list of Indian citizens is being updated in Assam, the worst affected State from illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Recently, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das had also sought to implement NRC in the State citing huge influx of the illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country into his State.
The demand for NRC in Delhi assumes political significance after the stupendous rise of AAP and it’s vote bank in Muslim dominated clusters has also upset the applecart of the BJP as well as Congress.
In the ongoing sealing in the national Capital, Tiwari has also accused the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee - EPCA of shielding illegal constructions in these areas.
Accusing the authorities for adopting ‘pick and choose’ method, the BJP MP has questioned as to why no action had been taken in areas like Okhla, Jamia Nagar, Shaheen Bagh, Noor Nagar and Johari Farm having five to seven storeyed buildings and most of them running commercial activities from residential colonies.
“The AAP MLA has been patronising all illegal occupations in the area and even authorities are afraid of taking any action. What is the reason that no property has been sealed in Okhla while the remaining parts of Delhi has been hit hard by the sealing drive,” Tiwari said.
The Delhi BJP president also said he will be staging a protest at DND flyway against illegal constructions and encroachment in Okhla on government land and the Yamuna floodplain. “One can clearly see multi-storeyed buildings along the Yamuna floodplain in Okhla while crossing through the DND Flyway. It is appalling that no action has been taken in this area. If these properties are not sealed or demolished, sealing drive will not be allowed in other parts of Delhi too,” Tiwari said.