Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi’s Cabinet Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj has urged the judiciary to not order demolition of any jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) cluster in Delhi until in-situ house is provided to the slum-dwellers as provided under the law.
The Delhi Cabinet Minister shared that the BJP’s DDA, Railways, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and Delhi Police are demolishing slums in violation of the country’s laws, court orders, and humanitarian principles. Expressing his concerns, the minister further added that in the Safdarjung Flying Club’s slum cluster, the Railways has issued a notice stating that people should evacuate on their own, while the responsibility for rehabilitation lies with the Central Government. Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj mentioned that the central government’s agencies have rendered countless people homeless in Sunder Nursery, Tughlaqabad, Mehrauli, Vasant Vihar, and Priyanka Colony.
He said for the last few months, it has been observed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government agencies like ASI, Railways, Delhi Development Authority, Land and Development Organization are conspiring to demolish JJ clusters wherever they are on their lands.
Shri Bharadwaj said however, the law of the country and the law of Delhi are very clear that notified JJ clusters in Delhi can be demolished only when the dwellers are rehabilitated at the same place. “This means that legally these clusters are old but before they are demolished, the people living in those JJ clusters will have to be given houses in-situ,” he said.
Launching AAP’s campaign, ‘Ghar bachao, BJP hatao’, on Sunday against the BJP-ruled central government’s policy to render Delhi’s slum-dwellers homeless, Shri Bharadwaj met the people who live in jhuggis behind the Safdarjung Flying Club. The JJ cluster is under threat of demolition by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
In an interaction with the mediapersons on the occasion, the senior AAP leader said the law of the country is that when the slum-dwellers shift to the houses built for them at the same place, their shanties can be demolished. “But against that law, against court orders, against humanity, it is being seen again and again that BJP’s Delhi Development Authority, Railways, ASI, Delhi Police are doing demolition,” he said.
Standing near the small cluster behind the Safdarjung Flying Club, Shri Bharadwaj said, “These people live here with their small children. Those children study in the nearby government schools, those women either work in the nearby houses or their husbands work in the nearby markets. Where will these people go?”
Terming the DDA notice issued to the slum-dwellers as ‘ridiculous and cruel’, the senior AAP leader said the notice orders the dwellers to shift from this place to some other place themselves. “The responsibility of displacement lies with the agency to which the land belongs. This land belongs to the Central Government, hence it is the responsibility of DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board). It is their responsibility to first, identify each slum-dweller and prepare their record and provide them a house in the vicinity. After giving a house, their shanties can be demolished,” he said.
Shri Bharadwaj said no one wants to live in a shanty but in the last few decades, DDA, an agency of the Central Government has not provided houses to them. “This responsibility was of DDA but it could not fulfill its responsibility. Hence the poor people somehow made arrangements for their living. And this is not the case here alone,” he said.
Giving examples of lakhs of people rendered homeless in various demolition drives in last year, the senior AAP leader said owing to illegal actions of Central agencies slum-dwellers in Sunder Nursery, Tughlakabad, Mehrauli and at the Priyanka Camp, Vasant Vihar lost roofs over their heads. “These are the same people who you see living under flyovers, on footpaths and in other areas across Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party says what to do for so many homeless people. When you destroy those people and make them homeless, then what else can be done?” he reasoned.
Shri Bharadwaj alleged the BJP workers have put stickers of Ram Janmabhoomi on these slums, but when the Railways and police came to demolish their slum on December 16, the BJP workers ran away. “This means that they want these people to be destroyed,” he said.
In response to a reporter’s question that the BJP alleged that the AAP was misleading people, Shri Bharadwaj dared the saffron party. “I ask the BJP to hold a press conference and say that this notice is false, and no action will be taken against slum-dwellers. Make us a liar, we will be happy to be labeled liars too,” he said.
Shri Bharadwaj said wherever there is Central Government land, it is the responsibility of the agency concerned to provide houses to the slum-dwellers and where the land belongs to Delhi Government, it is the responsibility of DUSIB to provide them houses before they are demolished.
Shri Bharadwaj alleged that BJP-ruled central agencies and some unscrupulous lawyers of DUSIB are misleading the courts. “In some cases, the lawyer says that we will take these slum-dwellers to the ‘Rain Baseras’ (night shelters). These slum-dwellers have small children, young daughters, will they live in night shelters? In any case, Rain Basera is for spending the night. I will request the court not to order their demolition until houses are built for them,” he said.
