New Delhi: A demolition drive was held at the Bhoomiheen camp in Kalkaji amid a heavy deployment of cops on Wednesday morning. Calling the demolition a “deliberate assault on the marginalised”, AAP alleged that BJP govt defied its own chief minister Rekha Gupta’s promise of “not a single jhuggi will be touched”.Local MLA Atishi alleged that BJP was betraying the poor. “Just three days ago, CM Rekha Gupta claimed that not a single jhuggi would be demolished and no poor person’s home would be touched. Yet, under the cover of heavy police presence, the entire Bhoomiheen camp was razed to the ground, displacing thousands of people and leaving them homeless on the streets,” she said.Delhi Development Authority said the demolition was against ineligible dwellers encroaching upon five acres of its land. It stated that under the in situ slum rehabilitation project at Kalkaji, after applying the eligibility criteria as per DUSIB’s rehabilitation and relocation policy of 2015, approved by the then Delhi govt, some residents were found to be eligible for rehabilitation and some were not.“As per policy, the households whose names appear in one of the voter lists of the years 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 (prior to 01.01.2015) and possess one of the 12 documents prescribed in the policy, like a passport, electricity bill, driving licence, or passbook issued by a public sector bank or post office, are eligible for alternative accommodation. Their names should also appear in the voter list of the year of the survey,” it added.Households using the jhuggi for commercial purposes, those with residents under 18 years of age, and those living on the upper floor without a separate ration card prior to 01.01.2015 do not qualify for alternative allotment, DDA further explained.A total of 1,862 eligible households of Bhoomiheen camp were rehabilitated to EWS flats in Kalkaji Extension between Nov 2022 and May 2023, said DDA. The project is located on a land of 3 hectares with a total construction cost of Rs 345 crore, excluding land cost. These flats have been given at a highly subsidised price of Rs 1.1 lakh as beneficiary contribution, it added.The ineligible dwellers were given an opportunity to file an appeal before the Appellate Authority, the land-owning agency said.DDA further claimed that most of the houses demolished on Wednesday were lying vacant. “344 jhuggi structures existed which were mostly vacant. There is no stay against demolition of these jhuggi structures,” it said in a statement.BJP did not comment on the development.
