New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, slamming the anti-encroachment drive underway in several parts of the city, said on Monday that razing the illegally built shops and homes of 63 lakh people in Delhi would be the “greatest destruction” in independent India.
Mr Kejriwal told Aam Aadmi Party MLAs in a meeting over the topic that they should be prepared to go to jail if they oppose the BJP-led municipal corporations’ anti-encroachment drive in several districts of Delhi.
“They are reaching colonies with bulldozers and razing any shop and house. Even if people show them papers to prove that the structure is not illegal, they do not check them,” he said.
“Delhi has not been made in a planned way. More than 80 per cent of Delhi can be called illegal and encroached. Does that mean you will destroy 80 per cent of Delhi?” he said in an online briefing.
He added that the party is opposed to how the anti-encroachment drive is being carried out, noting that approximately 50 lakh people live in unauthorised colonies, ten lakh in ‘jhuggis,’ and lakhs more have changed balconies or done something that does not comply to original blueprints.
“That means homes and shops of 63 lakh people will be bulldozed. This will be the biggest destruction happening in independent India,” he said.
While adding that the Aam Aadmi Party opposes encroachment and wants Delhi to be attractive, he stated that razing the homes and businesses of 63 lakh people will not be accepted.”In the last 15 years, the BJP was in power in MCD and took money. Their tenure will be ending on May 18. Do you have the constitutional power to take such a big decisions. Let elections happen and let that party take the decision. Everyone knows that the AAP will come to power in MCD,” he said.
He also assured that the Aam Admi Party will soon resolve the problem of encroachment and people residing in unauthorised colonies and will also get ownership rights.
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