NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said that the Delhi’s municipal corporations would soon start de-sealing thousands of residential properties sealed following the directions of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. Speaking at a press conference, BJP’s state unit president Adesh Gupta and his predecessor and North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, said that the three civic agencies would discuss the issue and set up a help desk to start the process.
While deciding on the question of the authority of the monitoring committee to seal residential premises on private land, the Supreme Court last week held that the committee was never authorised to initiate action against the premises that were not being used for commercial purpose.
Welcoming the decision, both Gupta and Tiwari said that the monitoring committee has become “irrelevant” as a special task force has been formed to deal with the issue of encroachment in Delhi. “A total of 6,000 residential properties sealed by the committee will benefit from the decision. There is no requirement of the monitoring committee now.
The Kejriwal government wanted to use this issue against the BJP but it has become clear that the we have been fighting a real battle for the people and will fight even further,” said Gupta.Tiwari, who had faced contempt action for breaking seal of a property in Gokalpur in 2018, alleged that the monitoring committee worked in a ‘pick and choose’ manner.
“Despite several complaints by me, it did not take any action on unauthorised construction of thousands of houses on Yamuna floodplain in Okhla,” Tiwari had submitted before the court. Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress, Tiwari said that both parties’ governments had done nothing to safeguard the interest of the people.