NEW DELHI: In an interesting development exposing the double face of the Sheila Dikshit Government over the issue of demolitions in the Capital's rural Lal Dora areas, the Delhi Government is understood to have sent a fresh notification to the Lieutenant-Governor, B. L. Joshi, for withdrawing the 1963 notification exempting such areas from application of building by-laws. If approved, it is likely to lead to unrest in rural areas and badly damage the Congress party as Lal Dora areas will come under the hammer.

What political observers find " most shocking" about the whole situation is that while on the one hand Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had gone on record asking the Union Government to issue an Ordinance to regularise all unauthorised constructions, illegal buildings and related activities on the lines of the Ulhas Nagar Ordinance in Maharashtra, on the other she has quietly moved to pull the plug and expose the villages in Lal Dora and extended abadi areas to the threat of bulldozers.

Interestingly, even the Congress-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi cannot be absolved of responsibility for such an action as it had initially recommended to the Delhi Government to undo the 1963 notification exempting such areas in village and extended abadi from application of building bylaws. It is learnt that DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma had also met Mr. Joshi and taken up the issue with the party leadership to save the party and government from embarrassment and possible confrontation.

Highly placed sources informed that after realising that it would face flak from rural areas and its own party MLAs for having undertaken this drastic step, Urban Development Minister A.K. Walia asked the State Law Department to look into the whole issue and re-consider if the notification could be withdrawn. However, it is learnt that the Law Department has opined that the notification cannot be withdrawn as it had already been sent to Mr. Joshi for approval.

``The Congress is indulging in double talk. On the one hand they are talking about Ordinance and making promises in the Mahapanchayat, on the other they have sounded the death knell of the village areas under Lal Dora and extended abadi. This would cost the Congress dearly as we will not allow bulldozers to enter our villages and will confront them if need be,'' NCP MLA, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri warned.

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