Delhi Cong To File Review Petition Against SC Order On Removal Of Slums Along Rail Tracks In City

New Delhi: The Delhi Congress will file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s order to remove slum clusters along railway tracks in the city, as it will affect over 10 lakh people, the party’s Delhi unit chief Anil Kumar said on Friday. The Supreme Court on Thursday had directed removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along the 140 km length of railway tracks in Delhi within three months.

The apex court had also said that removal of slums would take place in a phased manner and there would not be any kind of political interference in execution of the plan. “The Supreme Court judgement to clear railway tracks of JJ clusters will displace over 10 lakh people, already under stress and strain due to the Corona pandemic. The AAP and BJP government are responsible for their plight,” Kumar said at a press conference.

No reaction was immediately available from the AAP. “The Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi and the BJP-ruled MCDs should be held responsible for not resettling these people all these years, despite making promises in their election manifestos,” Kumar said.

The Delhi Congress chief said out of 64,184 flats, construction of which was started by the Sheila Dikshit government, only 1,931 have been allotted, as per the answer given by the AAP government in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha. In 2010, the then Congress government in the national capital, headed by Sheila Dikshit, had established the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to provide safe housing to the residents of JJ clusters, he said.

“The Congress will file a review petition in the Supreme Court as it was a question of the lives of lakhs of poor people, who play a very important role in the progress and prosperity of the capital,” he said. Kumar said even in 2019, in a petition filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken, the Delhi High Court had directed that it was the responsibility of the Delhi government to provide alternate housing to the residents of jhuggi jhopri(JJ) clusters.

The Supreme Court had also ruled in 1985 that it was the responsibility of the government to provide alternative accommodation to displaced people in urban settlements, he added.

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