In a press conference held on Sunday, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta and North Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Adesh Gupta slammed at the Delhi government for allegedly ‘politicising’ the issue of allotment of land for a school and a parking facility at an idgah near Sadar Paharganj.
Education Minister Manish Sisodia had on December 15 lashed out at the BJP-run Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for not allotting enough land for construction of a school at the site.
Mr. Adesh Gupta said the North Delhi body has plans to construct a multilevel car parking to accommodate about 3,000 cars at the site, where the DDA allotted the corporation 14,200 square metre of land on December 14. Claiming that the locals had been demanding parking facility, he attacked the Delhi government saying that it was bent on interfering with the corporation’s work.
Mr. Vijender Gupta, who is a member of the DDA, said lakhs of people visit Sadar Paharganj leading to congestion. While a parking facility was needed because of this, he said they also supported the construction of a school at the site. However, he said nearly seven government schools were already running in the area.
Mr. Vijender Gupta added that the Delhi government was trying to confuse the public by turning the issue into a political and religious one. Criticising the government for not paying attention to the city’s parking woes, he said “In the last five years, the Delhi government has not spent any money on improving parking facilities in the city. This when there are over one crore cars here — the highest in a metro city in the country.”
