Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal and scores of people staged a sit-in near Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s residence on Friday morning to protest against demolition of buildings in a south Delhi locality and demanded that they be given an audience with her.
Over 100 people started gathering at Ms Dikshit’s Motilal Nehru Marg residence at 7 a.m. while Mr Kejriwal joined them an hour later to protest demolition of their houses in Shaheenbagh.
A large number of police personnel were deployed at the spot to avoid any untoward incident.
Police barricaded one side of road from Janpath side which has the entry gate to Ms Dikshit’s residence.
Protesters shouted slogans against the government action.
“The land where these people are living is there land, they have documents of it. But it’s unauthorised because you have to get the map passed by the government,” Mr Kejriwal said.
“But on October 4, 2010 Sonia Gandhi had announced that 1600 colonies will be regularised, this colony is also one of them. But despite that 500 houses were demolished,” he said.
He alleged showrooms nearby were not razed.
“We were asking for Dikshit’s time which was not given. We are not here for a clash with the government but a sit in protest,” he said.
