Attacking the BJP over notices of demolition of slums in the city, AAP on Friday alleged that the BJP wants to demolish every slum in the city.
The party also shared a letter written by the Delhi government-run Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to the Railways, in which it has been asked to not demolish any slum without providing alternative accommodation.
AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said that the government has attached a list of 45,857 pucca houses in the letter and said that if the BJP government does not provide pucca houses to people, then the AAP government will do it.
He said that the Supreme Court was hearing a matter regarding the cleaning of garbage and in that hearing, the Central government submitted an affidavit in August 2020. “The Supreme Court was hearing a case only on the cleanliness of Delhi, but the BJP’s Railway Ministry secretly filed an affidavit and demanded the removal of slums. The BJP government, in its affidavit to the SC, has noted that due to Kejriwal government, slum demolition is not taking place. We take this admission as our pride,” Mr. Chadha said.
Mr. Chadha said that here the BJP-ruled Centre observed that the people who stay in the slums around the railway tracks are the reason behind dumping of garbage on the tracks. They noted that due to these people the railway tracks are dirty and that is why the BJP government wants these slums should be demolished and due to the Kejriwal government, they are unable to evict these slum dwellers, he said.
“This clearly exposes the real agenda of the BJP. But on behalf of the AAP, I want to tell the BJP that we are proud of the fact that due to the Kejriwal government you could not demolish the slums and had to note this on the affidavit. I want to tell you that not a single person will be displaced from these slums till the time Mr. Kejriwal is alive. We will not allow any such demolition,” he said.
Mr. Chadha said that the BJP government also submitted an action-taken report of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation to the SC, which also noted that due to Kejriwal government slum demolitions were stuck.
Meanwhile, the party said that many youth leaders, including Sachin Bidhuri, who had contested the Assembly elections from Tughlakabad on a Congress ticket, joined AAP on Friday.