Aam Aadmi Party raised the issue of demolition drive in Shakur basti and death of a baby at the site in Parliament on Monday. Party gave an adjournment notice in Lok Sabha over the issue while Trinamool Congress and JD(U) has given a notice in Rajya Sabha. MPs of three parties protested at Gandhi Statue in Parliament.
File Photo
Meanwhile, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi visited Shakur Basti on Monday, was engaged in a verbal battle with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Gandhi lashed out at AAP government for not making alternate arrangements for the slum dwellers for their rehabilitation. “Why they (AAP) are protesting? Jhuggis are being demolished in AAP-ruled state,” he said.
Hitting back at Rahul, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Rahul Gandhi is a kid. Perhaps his party hasn’t told him that Railway come under Centre not state government.”
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will take up the demolition drive in Shakur basti and death of a baby at the site with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu as he was not satisfied with the ministry officials’ response.
The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the demolition of over 500 shanties during an anti-encroachment drive conducted by the Railway police in a west Delhi slum. One child is alleged to have died during the demolition while hundreds were left exposed to the cold.
The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the demolition of 1200 slum units at Shakur Basti in West Delhi and planned to move court seeking FIR against those who ordered the action citing the Special Provision Act according to which no demolition can be carried out until government needs land urgently.
A six-month-old baby died in one of the slum units, which the railways insisted had “nothing to do with removal of encroachments”, claiming that it occurred two hours before the demolition started at 12 pm.
Police said prima facie the baby died due to suffocation after a heap of clothes fell on it when the parents were preparing to clear out of the jhuggi and hence no case was registered.