Kejriwal Orders Setting Up Of Tents For Residents Affected By Mehrauli Demolition Drive

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered to immediately set up tents, arrange food, beds and other basic facilities for homeless families affected by DDA demolition in Mehrauli.

CM Arvind Kejriwal directed to provide immediate relief to families affected by demolition by DDA in Mehrauli

Source : PTI File Photo

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered to provide relief materials immediately to the families in Mehrauli that were displaced after the Delhi Development Authority’s demolition drive in the area. Kejriwal ordered to immediately set up tents, arrange food, beds and other basic facilities for homeless families, sources told ABP News. 

The demolition drive started last week. As per the demolition notice the land on which the demolition was being carried out was a part of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park and the "existing unauthorised encroachment" was acting as a hindrance to the development of the park.

The residents held a protest against the anti-encroachment drive and claimed that they were not given any prior notice by the agency. DDA had demolished two three-storeyed buildings near the Aulia Masjid at Andheria Mor along with shanties, they added, news agency IANS had reported. 

On Tuesday, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena directed the DDA to stop the ongoing demolition drive in Mehrauli and Ladha Sarai till further instructions. 

The move by the Delhi LG came after the Delhi High Court sought responses from the city government and the Delhi Development Authority to a petition seeking a stay of destruction in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park region of south Delhi until a new "demarcation report" was completed.

Without interfering with the demolition process at that point, Justice Mini Pushkarna issued a notice on the petition filed by Mehrauli Minorities Resident And Shop Owners Welfare and directed that the matter be referred to the division bench (DB) headed by the Chief Justice, where a similar matter is already pending. 

Nearly 20 multi-storey buildings, a large number of shops and houses, and a private school building are among the structures built "illegally" in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park during the previous few decades, which the authorities have recognised as part of the 'anti-encroachment' drive.