Sisodia urges Shah to stop demolition drive in Delhi

New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging him to stop the "destruction" ensuing in the national capital due to the anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled municipal bodies.

Meanwhile, officials have said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will hold a key meeting with all AAP MLAs on Saturday on the anti-encroachment drives. The meeting will begin at 11 am on Saturday at Kejriwal's official residence in Civil Lines.

In an online briefing, Sisodia slammed the "bulldozer politics" of the BJP and claimed that the civic bodies are planning to raze 63 lakh dwellings in the national capital.

"Of these, 60 lakh houses are in unauthorised colonies while the remaining three lakh are those where people have extended their balconies or covered them. We have learnt that notices have been sent to them," Sisodia said. "This will lead to a huge destruction in the national capital. Almost 70 per cent of the population of Delhi will be rendered homeless," he added. The Aam Aadmi Party will oppose the demolition drive and I have written to the Union home minister to seek his intervention in the matter, he said, adding that they are even ready to go to jail. "I have written to him (Shah) saying that this (demolition drive) should be stopped. If bulldozers are to be used, they should be used to demolish the houses of those BJP leaders and civic body representatives who took bribes to allow such structures to be constructed," he said.

In the letter, Sisodia said there are 1,750 unauthorised colonies where nearly 50 lakh people live and 860 slum clusters which are home to around 10 lakh people. "In Delhi, the BJP has a plan to run bulldozers on these colonies. Every day, some BJP leader reaches a colony with a bulldozer," Sisodia said in the letter written in Hindi.

"Apart from this, three lakh people residing in unauthorised and DDA colonies have been given notices for making alterations like extending their balcony or covering it. In reality, there is no house in Delhi where alterations have not been carried out," he added.

He further alleged that in the last 17 years, councillors, officials and mayors of the civic bodies took bribes to allow jhuggis and providing plots for unauthorised colonies.

Now when there is a threat to BJP's rule coming to an end in the municipal corporations, they are trying to ruin people's houses, he said.

"I appeal to you (Shah) to tell BJP leaders to not indulge in dangerous politics in the name of bulldozers and to fix accountability of those who let these illegal constructions happen," Sisodia said. Till accountability is fixed, there should be complete stoppage of "bulldozer politics", he added. An anti-encroachment drive in Delhi's Madanpur Khadar on Thursday sparked protests and pelting of stones where the locals claimed that legal structures were bulldozed.

AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who was a part of a protest in the southeast Delhi locality, was arrested on charges of rioting and obstructing public servants in discharge of their duty, police officials said.