NEW DELHI: Chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday blamed
BJP for “destroying” Delhi with the ongoing sealing drive. He was reacting to a video circulating on social media in which Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari can be seen breaking the lock of a house sealed by the municipal corporation.
“They conduct
sealing drives in the morning and break the lock in the evening. Do they think people are fools? After demonetisation and GST, the sealing drive by BJP has destroyed Delhi,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
Tiwari, however, said he was against any kind of “corruption and pick-and-choose policy” in sealing illegal buildings or commercial establishments. “When I was in Gokulpur village in my constituency on Sunday morning, I was told by residents that some people, claiming to be from the SC-appointed monitoring committee, come and threaten to seal their buildings if they are not paid. Residents also said 60-70 of them had got sealing notice, while there are about 5,000 houses in that unauthorised colony. One resident showed me his house that was sealed and several others with similar construction were not even touched. That’s why I broke the lock,” Tiwari said.
The BJP chief said there were directions from the court that no sealing activity should take place in unauthorised colonies. “The municipal commissioner as well as the monitoring committee should explain why they had a pick-and-choose policy to seal houses. The Kejriwal government should also explain why the colony had not been regularised yet and why illegal buildings were coming up on government land,” Tiwari said.
Delhi Congress, which is running a campaign against sealing called
Nyay Yudh, said BJP was not serious on the issue. “The seven BJP MPs should meet the urban affairs minister and demand an ordinance against sealing from its government or step down,” former MLA and campaign convener Mukesh Sharma said.
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM
