Rahul Gandhi Meets Shakur Basti Slum Dwellers, Promises To Fight Their Battle

Kejriwal had earlier hit out at Rahul for accusing the Delhi Government for the demolition and called him a “child”. “I don’t think his party has told him that that Indian Railways reports to the Centre and not to the Delhi Government”, Kejriwal tweeted.

Slamming the railways for its “inhuman” demolition, the Delhi High Court directed the railways, police and the Delhi government to make a joint action plan for rehabilitation of the displaced residents. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is set to visit the slum in Shakur Basti, while the Trinamool Congress has chose to join the AAP protests outside Parliament.

Defending Gandhi for his comments, Dixit said, “Rahul ji has his heart with these poor people”.

The Delhi government also need to help them by providing the facilities of food, drinking water, night shelters and offering them residential facilities, the BJP leader said.

Miffed over the apathy of railway officials, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday met Prabhu and discussed the circumstances under which the demolition drive was carried out by the Northern Railway officials.

“The Delhi government, according to its policies, will first rehabilitate the slum dwellers and then give back the land to the Railways”, he said. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced this following a meeting on Monday evening with railway minister Suresh Prabhu. “Our friends in the TMC and JDU will do the same in Rajya Sabha since we don’t have any representation there”, said a party spokesperson. “Your fight is our fight”, Rahul told the slum dwellers. We will try to help you.

Apparently, more than 1200 slum units were demolished by Railway Officials on Sunday in the West Delhi area of Shakurpur Basti which has made thousands of people on roads.

When Mann referred to the death of a six-month-old baby, Prabhu said the child expired “much before the demolition drive” began.

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu admitted that “the demolition should not have happened in winter”. However, the demolition could not be undertaken then because police could not provide assistance then, Arora said. Railway sources, however, have denied the allegations, saying that the death of the child occurred in one of the slums around 10am and had nothing to do with the removal of encroachments.