NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party government on Monday accused the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of peddling “lies” regarding the Anaj Mandi fire that killed 43 people, and alleged that the Centre was exploiting the tragedy for political purposes.
The allegation came after Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said he wondered why those “responsible for the incident” had not taken their responsibilities seriously.
He accused the Delhi government’s urban development department of delaying the notification of the redevelopment plan of special areas in the national capital under the 2021 Master Plan.
Soon after the fire tragedy, in a series of tweets, Puri had accused the labour, urban development and Delhi Fire Service departments, which come under the Delhi government, of being negligent.
“It is clear by the number of deaths that many labour laws were violated, as per the DFS norms if the height of a building is certain limit then firefighting equipment should be in place but that was also not present. If all these departments had done their duty properly then the incident could have been avoided” said the Union minister.
Delhi’s Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said the Union ministry was spreading “lies”. “A tragic incident has been sought to be exploited for political reasons,” he said.
In a statement, the Delhi government said: “Apart from other factual inaccuracies and motivated allegations in that statement, some references have been to the Delhi Urban Development Minister’s office with regards to the Master Plan for Delhi 2021. The elected government of Delhi has been kept out of the entire process of Master Plans by the DDA and other wings of the Central government”.
Puri had also said that the municipal corporations had to make the redevelopment plan. It was sent to the Delhi government for notification in the official gazette in April 2017, but that was still pending, he alleged.
The Delhi government said the file was in Jain’s office “for less than 24 hours and was immediately cleared by him”.