NEW DELHI: The Delhi Congress on Monday claimed that over 50,000 people of 16 villages along the ridge area in the city are facing bulldozer threats, asserting that the party will launch an agitation if their houses are demolished by civic authorities.
Addressing a press conference here, Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar said that representatives of the 16 villages met him and complained about the "threat of bulldozers" to "evict" them from their homes.
"The latest target of the BJP's bulldozers are over 50,000 people living in 16 villages from Rajokri to Badarpur on the ridge area since 1950, who have played a major role in the development of Delhi," he said.
The Congress leader further alleged that "in 2006, two senior BJP leaders had given the Gram Sabha lands of the 16 villages to the forest department of Delhi government for their own political gains, and the villagers of Delhi are paying a heavy price for it".
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should convene a special session of the Assembly to pass a law to return the lands given to the forest department in the ridge area back to the Gram Sabha, Kumar demanded.
Lashing out at the BJP and the ruling AAP, the Delhi Congress chief said that in the past seven years, "the BJP and the AAP government joined hands to destroy the houses of thousands of people for their vested interests".
Former MP Ramesh Kumar, who was also present at the press conference, claimed that 7,000 acres of Gram Sabha lands in the 16 villages were given to the forest department by the BJP when it was in power in Delhi.
Of late, Delhi has witnessed several anti-encroachment drives by the BJP-ruled municipal corporations.
On April 20, bulldozers rolled into the violence-hit Jahangirpuri area where several structures close to a mosque were razed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
The drive was later stopped with the intervention of the Supreme Court.