Kejriwal takes dig at Rahul Gandhi, calls him a ‘kid’

The minister said he will invite Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for a discussion on the issue of encroachment.

Stepping into the demolition row, the high court had came down heavily on the Railway Ministry and police for the drive and directed the authorities to immediately rehabilitate over 5,000 people rendered homeless.

“The whole exercise was peaceful”, he said.

Hundreds were rendered homeless in the winter chill and a six-month-old baby died after the authorities demolished hutments built on railway land in the national capital, witnesses and police said. An infant died in controversial circumstances during the drive.

In a latest development in the Shakur Basti demolition case, the post-mortem report of the child has revealed chest and head injuries as one of the reasons behind the death. “Three notices were served to them and finally with police help we removed those encroachments near Shakurbasti station”, Delhi Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Arun Arora said here.

A bench headed by Justice S. Murlidhar asked the railways whether any survey was done and rehabilitation arrangements were made before the homes were brought down.

Observing that the railways was in a hurry to demolish the shanties in Shakur Basti, the court asked: “What was the tearing hurry to demolish Shakur Basti cluster in December?”

The judicial intervention followed a plea filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken.

It is also learnt that Congress president Rahul Gandhi will also visit the area to meet the victims. “But we will try to protect you, we will fight your battle”, Gandhi had said. “We will raise the slum-dewellers’ voice in Parliament and offer assistance of every kind to them”.

The Aam Aadmi Party blamed the central government for the demolition. According to Mr Kejriwal, Mr Gandhi was still a “kid”.

After meeting Prabhu, Kejriwal said no slums would be demolished without rehabilitation of dwellers, especially those occupying Railways land.

Arora said the slum dwellers were given first notice for vacating the land by March 14, 2015.

“You really don’t care about people, you just want to remove them”. However, the demolition could not be undertaken then because police could not provide assistance then, Arora said.

Terming the drive as “sudden” action, it said earlier too similar activities were planned by Railways, but could not materialise following “intervention” by Kejriwal and the state government. Senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra, while appearing for Delhi government, assured HC that “what needs to be done, we will do as we are not shying away from our duty”.