MPs want Sonia to stop demolitions

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has come under attack from her party colleagues yet again. A delegation of Congress MPs today met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to seek her intervention for stopping the demolition drive, which they said was targeted at the aam admi.

The delegation included Union Minister Kapil Sibal, Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, and Krishna Tirath.

The chief minister's son, Sandeep Dikshit, was not part of the delegation. Sibal claimed he is out of station.

The attack on the chief minister's pet initiative comes at a time when the UPA regime is learnt to be preparing a Bill, which it plans to table next month, to stop demolitions.

Sibal said the MPs were not in favour of illegal constructions but wanted a uniform policy. Some MPs said later they had strong objections to the government's decision to target constructions belonging to the poor, while sparing those belonging to the rich and the powerful. "Why don't they target Sainik Farms? said an MP. Tytler said the MPs wanted the drive to stop until a new master plan for the city was ready.

"In a city where 60 to 70 per cent people are poor, how can you make a 21st-century city. Building a five-star city does not mean you destroy the poor," Sibal said. He added the Union government should intervene because panic is spreading in Delhi on account of the "haphazard manner" in which demolitions had been conducted.

"Sealing/demolition of premises and unauthorised construction has been conducted in a manner which does not inspire confidence and does not confront the problem in a holistic manner. Individual buildings so targeted has given way to the belief that the process has been discriminatory and that no agency has been able to place all the relevant facts before the court...," a joint statement issued by the MPs said.