AAP Protests Outside Delhi BJP Office Over Slum-Demolition Order

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

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 BJP? Why are they acting against the people of Delhi?" Another MLA 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.

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.

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