LG order to stop Mehrauli anti-encroachment drive victory of people: AAP

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday termed Delhi LG VK Saxena's order to stop the anti-encroachment drive in Mehrauli the victory of people, and stressed the exercise was illegal.

Saxena has directed authorities to stop the anti-encroachment drive in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park area, five days after the Delhi Development Authority began the exercise that triggered protests from locals and a political slugfest in the national capital.

BJP national vice president and Delhi unit incharge Baijayant Panda, who also met the LG earlier in the day, tweeted: "The fraud Aadmi party backstabbed the Aam Aadmi of Mehrauli by wrongly demarcating homes which had been officially registered for half a century. BJP stood with residents and supported them. We thank Hon'ble LG for his support, and assurance that no one would suffer." AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj issued a series of tweets response.

"If BJP & LG saab is backstabbed by AAP, what stops ur LG saab to dismiss all officers of Revenue & DDA who were involved in this demolition. Challenge accepted? What has happened today is the victory of AAP and people of Delhi. BJP had lately realised that their LG saab is making them unpopular every passing day." AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, who had met the LG on Monday, said the BJP's claim that AAP government has anything to do with the Mehrauli demolition "clearly shows their malice and falsehood driven agenda".

"This is nothing but another attempt by the BJP to tarnish the image of CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal. DDA's entire demolition drive was completely unlawful and had no primary basis given the fact that it's demarcation itself was unlawful.

"The LG had bypassed the elected government to get DM South to do the said demarcation. The moment the Delhi Government was apprised of this situation it ordered a fresh demarcation there," he said in a statement.

The drive had come a month ahead of a proposed G20 meeting at the park in south Delhi, which according to the Delhi Development Authority, has about 55 monuments under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India, state archeological department and the DDA.

The Delhi government has, meanwhile, pulled up the district magistrate (south) for alleged "inaction" related to the demolition drive and directed him again to carry out fresh demarcation in the area.

Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot had directed the DM (south) last week to carry out fresh demarcation of "disputed" area after the affected residents alleged that the demarcation exercise was done keeping them in the dark.

In an order issued by Gahlot on Tuesday, it was alleged that DM (south) neither complied with the direction for fresh demarcation nor asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to stop the ongoing demolition exercise.