The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress ridicules BJP’s ‘jail bharo’ drive

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Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008
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Congress ridicules BJP’s ‘jail bharo’ drive

Staff Reporter

‘BJP during its rule at the Centre had only tried to harm the interests of Delhiites’

Photo: S. Subramanium

Waging war: DPCC chief J.P. Agarwal along with party leaders Ajay Maken, Jagdish Tytler, Krishna Tirath and Sajjan Kumar addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress president J.P. Agarwal and five Congress MPs from Delhi on Monday ridiculed the “jail bharo” movement announced by the Delhi BJP over the issue of sealing and demolitions in the Capital on the ground that while the Congress had legislated several Bills and brought the new Master Plan for Delhi-2021 to help the people, the BJP during its rule at the Centre had only tried to harm the interests of Delhiites.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Agarwal said while campaigning for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections in 2007 the BJP had promised that it would put an end to all sealing and demolition operations on coming to power in the MCD. “But,” he charged, “not a day passes when the MCD does not pull down buildings in some part of the city.”

On the other hand, Mr. Agarwal said the Congress had legislated two Bills and brought one Ordinance for the people. Also, it had passed MPD-2021 for giving relief to the people. Mr. Agarwal asserted that he would expose the real face of the BJP over the issue by bringing out the file notings made by former Union Urban Development Ministers Jagmohan, Ananth Kumar and Bandaru Dattatreya through the Right to Information Act.

Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken said the Congress had always acted in favour of the people and relaxed the building by-laws to benefit them. The Minister said it should be known to all that as per Para 16.3.2 of MPD-2021 no demolition can take place on any building up to a height of 15 metres in specified areas. “This,” he said, “means that even fifth floors of buildings up to this height cannot be pulled down.”

As for the safety aspect, Mr. Maken said, only a certificate of structural safety is needed for these buildings. He added that the Government had not allowed buildings to go higher than 15 metres as under the Delhi Fire Safety Act there are special norms for higher buildings.

On the issue of regularisation, the Minister said the Delhi Government would soon announce more concessions for the colonies. He expressed confidence that they would all be regularised within “the outer limit of six to eight months”. Even in the meantime, he said, developmental works would not stop there as they had been segregated from the issue of regularisation.

Delhi Sadar MP Jagdish Tytler said while the Congress had already provided relief to 90 per cent people from sealing and demolitions, it was on the way to providing a better shape to Delhi by submitting the Zonal Plans and regularising the unauthorised colonies. He charged that the BJP had proved a complete failure in the MCD.

Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar termed the BJP’s “jail bharo” move a political stunt and said while the Congress-led governments had defined government land and private land for the benefit of farmers and dwellers of various colonies, they had also enacted an Ordinance and saved numerous properties in rural areas from demolition and sealing by coming out with a one-year moratorium.

East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit accused the previous BJP Government at the Centre of initiating action against “misuse of land” leading to the present crisis in Delhi. However, he said, the regularisation of colonies is going to take place soon and they would witness various development activities.

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