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Congress MLAs meet Minister

Staff Reporter

Jaipal Reddy assures Bill would address demolition, sealing issues

CRUCIAL ISSUES: Delhi Congress MLAs led by Subhash Chopra during their meeting with Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy at his residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. -- Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI: Along with demolitions and sealing, the Bill that the Union Government seeks to introduce in Parliament for providing relief to those affected by the drives taking place on court directions in Delhi will also address issues pertaining to shops, unauthorised constructions and the city slums and those residing in them, Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy said following a meeting with 14 Delhi Congress legislators here on Tuesday. The Bill is expected to be introduced during the Parliament session starting May 10.

Stating that "these issues have been pending for decades", Mr. Reddy said while drafting the Bill the Centre would also take into account the opinion of residents' welfare associations that have been supporting the demolition and sealing drives.

The Minister's remarks following the meeting with the 14 Delhi MLAs assume significance as the Supreme Court had recently turned down the Centre's request for bringing the sealing drives to a halt for six months so that it is able to find an amicable solution to the problem by then.

The Apex Court had on April 28 asked the Centre to approach the Monitoring Committee with the request and had also directed the panel to submit its recommendations on the Centre's plea by May 4.

The delegation of MLAs was led by former Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra and secretary of All-India Congress Committee Parvez Hashmi. The other MLAs who met the Union Minister included Prahlad Singh Sahni, Rama Kant Goswami, Kiran Walia, Mateen Ahmed, Vir Singh Jhingan, Brahm Pal, Baljor Singh, Balram Tanwar, Narender Nath, Tarvinder Singh Marwah, Kanwar Karan Singh, Rajesh Jain, Amrish Gautam, Ramesh Lamba and Surjan Singh Panwar.

Claiming that they were on a hunger strike against the demolition and sealing drives, the delegation members said the Minister requested them to call off their stir and assured that the Ministry of Urban Development is coming up with the required legislation to address the issues.

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