NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress on Thursday said that the flats constructed for the slum dwellers in the capital were the vision of former party president Sonia Gandhi and that they had given shape to this plan. The grand-old party’s Delhi unit is worried that the BJP and AAP have been taking credit for it after the civic polls were announced.
“The in-situ construction of flats for the resettlement of residents of slum dwellers was started by the Congress government, with the approval, support and help of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, but both the BJP and AAP are trying to take credit for it,” a senior Congress leader said.
Terming both the opposition parties – BJP and AAP – as ‘anti-poor’, Chopra said that their love for the poor people of the slums, only surfaced after the civic elections were announced. “Around 42,000 flats constructed by the Congress Government under the Rajiv Ratan Awaz Yojna have not yet been allotted to the poor, which proves the anti-poor mindset of both the parties,” he said.
He further said that the idea for the construction of in-situ flats for slum dwellers was mooted when he called on Sonia Gandhi after he was appointed a member of the Delhi Development Authority, as she wanted to do something for the poor.
“When Congress comes to power in the MCD, in-situ flats will be constructed to relocate residents of 675 JJ clusters, without removing the JJ clusters. When the Congress Government began the project for the construction of the flats under the Rajiv Ratan Awaz Yojna at Bawana, Goga, Narela and Savda, it received 2.77 lakh applications, and these flats should have been allotted within one year after their completion,” said another Congress leader.