New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) Describing court-ordered demolitions as a part of orderly settlement of slum dwellers, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said on Friday that the state government is studying the Dharavi redevelopment model in ​​Mumbai for the national capital’s revival.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event in Shalimar Bagh, CM Gupta said that Delhi’s redevelopment will be done in a planned manner.

“We will not let anything happen to the slum dwellers of Delhi who have been permanent residents here for years,” she added.

Explaining the reasons for demolitions in some parts of the city, she said that the government does not intend to demolish houses without reason but at some places razing structures becomes unavoidable to settle residents in an orderly manner.

She hit out at the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for doing little for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

“Slum dwellers were not shifted to 50,000 flats that were built for their rehabilitation. The flats remained vacant even after residents deposited money for alternative accommodation,” she said.

Slum demolitions in the national capital have sparked a political tussle between the BJP and the AAP, with the latter accusing CM Gupta of not keeping her word on shielding slums from demolitions.

While the AAP has announced a city-wide agitation from June 29 against demolitions while accusing the BJP of breaking its promise of ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan’.

CM Gupta has reasoned that the demolition action in all cases was taken on court orders.

“No one can defy court orders,” she said.

In the recent weeks, slum demolitions have taken place in Okhla, Batla House, Jangpura, Kalkaji, Wazirpur, Jailorwala Bagh in Ashok Vihar, Gokalpuri on Loni Road and Model Town’s Azadpur.

The Delhi Development Authority had studied slum rehabilitation models in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Surat in 2017 and approved an in-situ redevelopment of jhuggi jhopri (JJ) clusters under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in consonance with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY) guidelines and Master Plan of Delhi-2021.

The eligibility criteria to identify the beneficiaries of JJ clusters is strictly in accordance the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) policy of December 11, 2017.

There are around 675 slum clusters in Delhi that are home to nearly 15 lakh people, according to DUSIB.

–IANS

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