Shakur Basti Demolition: Rahul Gandhi Visits Site

Severely critical of Railways and the police, the AAP government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the demolition drive and death of the girl.

On Monday, accompanied by Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, Rahul Gandhi met the displaced men, women and children and vowed to fight for their rights.

Gandhi said: “We will try to help you…”

“We will rehabilitate them to another place if it is not possible to allot them permanent houses at the place they have been living in”.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru further said this is a “pathetic act” as “peoples’ lives are involved and we can not be so casual”. “His party probably did not tell him that Railway comes under the central government, and not under the Government of Delhi”, he said. They went to another part of the slum to assemble other things.

“In principle, it was decided that there will be no demolition anywhere without rehabilitation in the coming days”, Kejriwal said after the meeting.

But he said the demolition was carried out after sending repeated notices to people at Shakur Basti to vacate the land. He called it an “atrocity on the poor”.

Mann said earlier that the Delhi government was not consulted over the razing. As the controversy broke out, Delhi Divisional Railway Manager Arun Arora told a press conference that encroachments had become a “risk” for train operations as the slums were within the 15-metre of safety zone.

The post mortem said the toddler died 30 hours before the autopsy indicating she might have died around 9.30 AM.

The MPs of the AAP and the Trinamool Congress (AITC) protested outside Parliament over the razed Shakur Basti clusters.

It was agreed that the Railways and the Delhi government, for the first time, will form a coordination committee at the senior official level to resolve any dispute or contentious matter arising out of the national transporter’s plans in the capital. The statement says the girl died before the demolition drive began.

The Delhi High Court has expressed shock over how the Railways approved clearing encroached railway land Shakurbasti jhuggi cluster, “in the biting cold”.

Maken, has sought in his plea that the Railway Ministry and Delhi police be restrained from finishing up any additional eviction or harassment of individuals dwelling in Shakur Basti till applicable rehabilitation has been offered.

More than 500 slums were demolished in an anti-encroachment drive conducted by the Indian Railways in Shakur Basti on Saturday. An infant allegedly died during the drive.

The demolition of shanties in the Belagaon area was reportedly carried out by Delhi Development Authority.