Delhi: AAP protests against PWD’s Dhaula Kuan slum-demolition order

Water cannons being used to disperse Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters during a protest outside Delhi BJP office over PWD’s Dhaula Kuan slum-demolition order. Pic/PTI

Aam Aadmi Party workers on Saturday staged a protest outside the Delhi BJP office, days after the city government directed its Public Works Department to immediately withdraw an order to demolish slums located near Dhaula Kuan. Police used water cannons to disperse the protestors.

Reacting to the protest, the BJP alleged the AAP leaders were "politically frustrated" after the "corrupt governance of the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation" was exposed and that the party was making an issue out of nothing. The PWD had on December 29 issued a notice asking slum dwellers in the Dhaula Kuan area to vacate the land within 15 days. AAP MLA Somnath Bharti asserted that his party won't let anybody's house get demolished. "What is wrong with the BJP? Why are they acting against the people of Delhi?"

AAP leader Aadil Ahmad said the party's agitation against the demolition order will be taken to the streets near Parliament as well. "It was in the BJP's manifesto that all slum dwellers will be given a house at the same place where slums are. But now, they are sending notices to demolish slums," he said. The Delhi government, in its notice directing the PWD to withdraw the demolition order, said it was "inhuman" to do so at the peak of winter and without making an alternate arrangement for the residents.

Also Read: CBI searches office of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the PWD portfolio, had earlier this week tweeted, "PWD officials have been ordered to immediately withdraw the order to demolish slums located near Dhaula Kuan." "Demolishing the houses of the poor in the cold without providing any alternate housing is not acceptable under any circumstances. The Arvind Kejriwal government will never support a decision to render people homeless," he had said.

Excise policy case: CBI team ‘visits' Manish Sisodia's office

A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday visited the office of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. While Sisodia claimed that the CBI raided his office, the central probe agency denied the claim. A top CBI official said on condition of anonymity that it was only a search operation related to the excise policy case. "Today again the CBI has reached my office. They are welcome. They raided my house, my office, searched my locker, even conducted an investigation in my village. Nothing has been found against me and nothing will be found, because I have not done anything wrong. I've sincerely worked for the education of the children in Delhi," Sisodia tweeted in Hindi.

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