Court calls demolition drive in Delhi ‘inhuman’

“His party had not told him that the Railways comes under the Centre and not the Delhi Government”, the Chief Minister said.

Asked whether the child death incident has caused a setback to the railways demolition drive, Arora said, “No, the drive will continue as we want clear the encroachment near the track because it has become a serious problem for train operations”.

“Perhaps, a deal must been struck between Modi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case which is why he is targeting the Kejriwal government”, Singh tweeted.

The demolition was conducted by the Railways with the help of the police on Saturday, with Union minister Suresh Prabhu telling the Lok Sabha on Monday that that the encroachments were a safety hazard that have been impeding development.

But he admitted that railways could have undertaken the evictions post winter.

The postmortem report of the child who allegedly died during the anti-encroachment demolition drive has revealed that she died due to shock as a result of chest and head injury.

The Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojna for urban poor has already been scrapped by the AAP government without bringing in any new policy for slum dwellers.

On Monday, the Delhi government again blamed the central government and the railways for the “inhuman” anti-encroachment drive carried out in the absence of a rehabilitation programme for those evicted. “They are in government”, Rahul Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.

Meanwhile, police probing the toddler’s death, said a case of death due to negligence against unknown persons have been registered at Punjabi Bagh police station on the basis of statement of her father.

Gandhi said: “We will try to help you… But we’ll attempt to shield you, we’ll struggle your battle”. “Railways will prepare a schedule of land required for projects and rehabilitation will be done based on that”, said Kejriwal after the meeting. The AAP chief also underlined that before undertaking any demolition drive, the counter rehabilitation programme should be in place.

The Delhi government is facing flak from the opposition parties following the death of a six-month-old baby in the Shakur Basti area of west Delhi.

“Without making any alternative arrangements for them, their houses were demolished”.

Kejriwal, who visited the site late last night, slammed the railways for undertaking the demolition drive at a time when the temperature saw a sharp drop.

An infant also died on Saturday although officials insisted that the death had nothing to do with the razing.