The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will launch a week-long campaign — ‘Ghar Bachao, BJP Hatao’ — against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government on Sunday. Under the drive, AAP will hold nukkad sabhas in various slum colonies of the city against the Centre, whom it has accused of “systematically demolishing slums in a conspiracy to remove their residents”.
Announcing the campaign at a press conference on Saturday, AAP’s Delhi convener Gopal Rai said on the one hand, the Centre promises housing for the poor through schemes such as ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makaan’, “on the other, it renders them homeless [through demolition drives] and does not even provide them with alternative arrangements despite being questioned by the courts”.
“The BJP hates the poor and doesn’t understand how they live. In one stroke, [their] bulldozers render thousands of people homeless in a day,” Mr. Rai said, adding that the decision to launch the campaign was approved at a meeting of party MLAs on Saturday.
“Our MLAs and councillors will create awareness through nukkad sabhas in various slum colonies across Delhi against the BJP-led Centre’s drive. The campaign will end with a demonstration outside the BJP headquarters on January 21,” he said.
On Sunday, the party’s MLAs and councillors will hold nukkad sabhas at B.R. Camp and D.I.P. Camp, which fall in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.
Hitting back, Delhi BJP general secretary Harsh Malhotra said the AAP government, mired in corruption allegations, is trying to divert the attention of the media and the public by misleading slum dwellers. “Delhi’s poor people know very well that during the past nine years, the Kejriwal government did not allot houses to the poor,” he said.
Coldest morning
Meanwhile, the mercury in Delhi dropped to a five-year low, with the minimum temperature dipping to 3.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday, 3.8 degrees below the average for the season, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The minimum is likely to be 4-7 degrees Celsius over the next week.
Published - January 14, 2024 04:51 am IST
