With the Delhi election weeks away, the ruling AAP and Opposition BJP are going all out to woo voters in urban slums — a key chunk of the capital’s electorate. Doubling down on its earlier charge that Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena okayed the ‘land use’ change of a plot in north Delhi’s Shakur Basti, endangering the future of the slum dwellers there, AAP today released a document to back its claim.
The document contained minutes of the meeting of Delhi Development Authority’s technical committee on December 20.
The minutes mentioned the ‘land use’ change request of a 4.63-hectare land from ‘Transportation’ (Circulation-Rail)’ to ‘Residential’ at Shakurbasti. The minutes say that the proposal to change ‘land use’ was approved after detailed discussions.
The AAP shared the document after Lieutenant Governor Saxena trashed AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s allegations regarding the ‘land use’ change and accused him of lying and misleading people.
In a video statement, the Lieutenant Governor said Mr Kejriwal’s claims are “completely false”.
“Kejriwal is deliberately lying and misleading people. I urge him to stop making such statements otherwise DDA will take action against him,” said Mr Saxena, who heads the DDA.
“DDA has neither changed the land use nor given any eviction notices,” he said, adding that the railway plot, the ‘land use’ of which was changed, is a different land that has no slum on it.
Mr Kejriwal yesterday visited Shakur Basti and alleged that BJP was prioritising land acquisition over the welfare of slum dwellers. “They want your votes first and your land after the elections,” he said.
Voters from slum areas are a key chunk of Delhi’s electorate and are widely seen as a stronghold of the AAP. In his poll rallies, Mr Kejriwal alleged that the BJP intends to demolish slums in Delhi if it wins the polls. Union Minister and BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri has junked the allegations and accused the AAP government of non-cooperation.
