New Delhi: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has criticised BJP’s demolition drive in the national capital as “bulldozer politics” and said this would make 60 lakh people homeless.
AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday, and urged his government to stop the demolition drive which he believed was being conducted to “extort money from the people”.
He told citizens that the AAP government was with them. “We are ready to go to jail to stop the BJP’s demolition drive,” Sisodia said.
He also appealed to Shah to hold the civic bodies accountable for the demolitions in Delhi’s unauthorised colonies and slums.
Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia writes to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in connection with "the ongoing bulldozer drive led by BJP-ruled MCD, which might render around 60 lakh people homeless." He appeals to HM Amit Shah to hold authorities accountable. pic.twitter.com/qVJnCWa6zH
— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2022
The capital has seen protests in areas like Jahangirpuri, Shaheen Bagh, Friends Colony among others as civic bodies have removed encroachment.
On Thursday night, the Delhi Police arrested AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who was protesting the demolition along with locals, at Madanpur Khadar.
Khan said the BJP through civic bodies was running bulldozers over the houses of poor people.
He tweeted: “The lathi-charge by the police on the people opposing the BJP’s ‘bulldozer system’ is unconstitutional. We are against the anti-people policies of the BJP, and I will always raise my voice for the rights of the people, no matter how many times I have to go to jail for this… Delhi Police has arrested me. Can imprison me, not my spirits.”
Also read: Bulldozers in Shaheen Bagh, but no demolition: How residents averted ‘law-and-order situation’