New Delhi: Bulldozers are being used to demolish illegal structures during a joint anti-encroachment operation by NDMC, PWD, local bodies and police in violence-hit Jahangirpuri area.
Highlight
- Several establishments were demolished in the violence-hit Jahangirpuri of Delhi.
- This triggered a political tussle between the opposition and the BJP.
- The BJP said it was a legal exercise which had nothing to do with religion.
Several establishments were vandalized during an anti-encroachment drive in Delhi’s violence-hit Jahangirpuri area on Wednesday. This sparked political controversy with the opposition alleging that it was a subversion of India’s constitutional values targeting the poor and minorities and the BJP saying it was a legal exercise that had nothing to do with religion.
Here are today’s top developments:
- Several concrete and temporary structures near a mosque were demolished this morning as part of an anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled civic body in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.
- The demolition drive lasted a long time and among those destroyed were a tobacco shop, a scrap dealer’s shop, a juice corner and the main gate of a mosque.
- Significantly, the shops that were vandalized belonged to both the communities.
- The process was halted due to the intervention of the Supreme Court, which ordered a status quo on the demolition drive against the alleged encroachers.
- The Chief Justice directed status quo on the demolition drive and agreed to list the matter before an appropriate bench for hearing on Thursday.
- As the bulldozers stopped, the opposition started criticizing the move, saying it showed the poor and minorities were being targeted. The BJP, however, said it was a legal exercise that had nothing to do with religion.
- Several opposition leaders like Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and AAP leader Manish Sisodia criticized the move.
- AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also tried to reach the riot-hit area, but was stopped by the police. He compared the incident to the Turkman Gate demolition of 1976.
- The TMC has decided to send an all-women fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri on Friday. The team of six MPs will submit its report to party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
- Facing criticism over its demolition drive, the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Wednesday termed it as a routine exercise in which nearly two-km stretch was cleared of encroachments and said it was removed from the same area on April 11 this year. Squatters were also removed.
(with PTI inputs)
Read also: Jahangirpuri demolition: Where is the opposition?
Read also: Owaisi was stopped from going to Jahangirpuri, BJP lashed out at AAP over demolition drive