Shakur Basti demolition: War of words over child’s death

“In the process, an infant girl has died and the post-mortem has revealed that she had received severe head injury and that her ribs had broken”, said Jain.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru had termed it a “pathetic act” as “peoples’ lives are involved and we can not be so casual”.

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

He said Delhi Chief Minister has written three letters on the issue and still the drive was undertaken.

Delhi CM Kejriwal responded to Rahul Gandhi and said, “Rahul did not seem briefed about the incident; Railways comes under the central government”.

“The post-mortem report has also come which states death due to shock on chest and face”, he added.

NHRC said it had sent the notices after taking suo motu cognisance of media reports regarding the demolition of slum dwellings at two places in the city – Shakur Basti in west Delhi and Belagaon area in old Delhi.

Acting with the ease and felicity of a consummate politician, Kejriwal has quickly turned the demolition drive in Shakur Basti into a national event, into yet another televised, twittered battle in the ongoing war between his government and the Centre. However, the blame game has also brough Delhi Chief Minister face to face with Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

“First, people living in the slums will be rehabilitated peacefully, then the vacant land will be handed over to the Railways”. We will fight for you and won’t let this gross injustice happen to you. He said the demolition was carried out after sending repeated notices to people at Shakur Basti to vacate the land.

However, there is an order by the Urban Development Department that says the government can not demolish any structure unless a new policy is worked out.

Rahul had demanded to know the reason behind AAP’s “dharna” since they were the ruling power in Delhi.

“They chased the pregnant woman away, when we asked them to give medicine they asked us to go to a private hospital”. In the evening, senior railway officials met him to explain why the slum cluster was demolished but the “difference of opinion” persisted between the two sides.

“Currently we have given 594 houses to shift them in a peaceful manner with police”.