Child didn’t die during demolition drive: Suresh Prabhu

On Monday Rahul Gandhi met the displaced men, women and children and vowed to fight for their rights.

This development is likely to give Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal an edge over the Indian railways.

The slum residents in Shakur Basti raised an uproar after a child was found dead.

The Congress leader’s reaction came after AAP members protested against the demolitions in Parliament.

Rahul had demanded to know the reason behind AAP’s “dharna” since they were the ruling power in Delhi. The order issued in February this year, marked to various land owning agencies says: “The government has made a decision to take a holistic view of the existing policy regarding carrying out demolitions of residential houses, jhuggis etc in Delhi by various agencies”. Separate probes will be conducted into demolition drive and the child’s death.

“CM was not happy with the Railway officials response and he would take up the matter with Railway Minister”, sources also said.

“The Delhi government may seek a reply from Railways over the demolition and BJP has nothing to do with it”, he said”.

“Those who have done this (demolition of shanties) are not humans, instead they are animals”, Kejriwal said. “They carried out the anti-encroachment drive two days ago but did not provide any alternate living arrangements for the people residing there”, Jain said. “But we will try to protect you, we will fight your battle”.

Gandhi went to Shakur Basti in west Delhi with Delhi unit Congress president Ajay Maken after the demolition of about 500 hutments by railway authorities left hundreds out in the open in the winter chill.

“Rahul Gandhi ji is still a kid”.

“Out of all the slum clusters that have been demolished by the government, there have been no relocations”. He later announced that there would be no demolitions in Delhi without rehabilitation. Kejriwal rebutted Rahul saying the latter was “still a kid” and that probably the Congress had not apprised him of the fact that the Railways, which carried out the razing, fell under the central government. The counsel for railways had no reply. “We are suspending the local DM, SDMs”, he said.

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.