New Delhi, June 2: A political storm erupted in the capital on Sunday after bulldozers razed large parts of the Madrasi Camp slum cluster near Barapullah in South Delhi, displacing hundreds of working-class families.
The demolition, carried out following a Delhi High Court order, has drawn sharp criticism from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, who accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Delhi administration of betrayal and insensitivity.
Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Atishi, took to social media platform X to condemn the move. “Before the elections, BJP leaders came to stay in Madrasi Camp. They got the people to fill out the ‘Jahan jhuggi, wahin makaan’ forms. As soon as the BJP government came, they bulldozed these slums. Only a handful of people were given houses, that too in Narela. Most of the people have come on the streets. This is the truth of BJP,” she posted.
Echoing similar sentiments, AAP’s Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj criticized the timing of the demolition. “Yesterday the Chief Minister of Delhi said that no slum will be demolished. Today itself the Barpulla Madrasi Camp was destroyed by bulldozers. Thousands of people were deprived of their homes. Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin must expose how BJP treats people of Tamil Nadu in the national capital,” he wrote on X.
AAP MLA Praveen Kumar also shared a video statement on social media, accusing the administration of carrying out “barbaric activities.”
“Houses of people who had been living there for 50 years were demolished. What did not happen in the Arvind Kejriwal government is now happening in Delhi under Rekha Gupta’s government,” he said.
Approximately 370 families resided in the Madrasi Camp, a jhuggi cluster that has existed for nearly 60 years along the banks of the Barapullah drain near Nizamuddin Railway Station. Last month, residents were served eviction notices, and authorities identified only 189 families as eligible for relocation to government flats in Narela.
A government notice dated May 30 informed residents that trucks would be available at Barapullah Bridge from May 31 to June 1 to assist in shifting their belongings.
The Tamil Nadu government, responding to the situation, acknowledged the demolition was being conducted in compliance with a court directive and that all legal options had been exhausted. It added that assistance would be provided to any residents from Tamil Nadu who wished to return to their native districts. (PTI)
