Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said that the Delhi Government's Public Works Department has been ordered to withdraw its notice to slum dwellers living in Dhaula Kuan to leave the area.
"PWD officials have been ordered to immediately withdraw the order of demolition of slums located near Dhaula Kuan. Demolition of the houses, without any other arrangement in the cold is not acceptable.
Arvind Kejriwal government will never stand by a decision to render the public homeless," said Sisodia in a tweet in Hindi. Earlier on December 29, the PWD had issued a notice to the slum dwellers of Dhaula Kuan to leave the area.
The eviction notice asks the residents to vacate the slum area within 15 days. "We have been living here for the last 30 years... where will we go amid extreme weather and cold conditions?
The notice has been given to leave the area within 15 days of issuance," said a local resident. The PWD notice has underlined that if the dwellers do not leave the slum by themselves, help from police will be taken.
"It is being informed... that you demolish the dwellings yourselves and leave the area of both sides within 15 days of pasting the notice, otherwise your slums will be demolished by the police," reads the notice.