Amid criticism over the spate of demolitions in the city, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the action was taken following court orders.

AAP leaders have accused the BJP of betraying its poll promise of ‘Jahan Jhuggi, Wahan Makan’ by allegedly bulldozing settlements and rendering thousands of residents — many of whom are migrants from poll-bound Bihar — homeless. In the past month, demolitions have also taken place in areas of Okhla, Batla House and Taimoor Nagar.

The AAP has also announced a city-wide mass movement against the demolition drive, set to kick off on June 29 at Jantar Mantar.

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Speaking to the media about the Madrasi Camp demolition last week, Gupta said, “In the past few days, whatever demolition action has been taken by the authorities, like at Madrasi Camp… the court had given directions to remove the encroachment over the Barapullah drain, almost four times… Neither the government nor the administration can do anything if the court has ordered something for the slums.”

“The court had ordered the removal of this slum so that machines could be deployed to clean the drain. No one can defy court orders. Houses have been allotted to the residents of that camp,” she told reporters.

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On Sunday, AAP Delhi convenor Saurabh Bharadwaj visited Madrasi Camp and a settlement in Model Town’s Azadpur, both sites of recent demolition drives.

In the Model Town camp, two parallel jhuggi settlements are located on each side of a railway track. On June 2, the Northern Railways carried out demolitions to remove the settlement on one side of the track, but fear gripped the rest of the residents on the other side of the track, too, who had not received notices to vacate their houses yet.

“Eventually, they will demolish our houses. We all know this by now, we had received notices to vacate before the elections, but the AAP had protested and saved our homes,” said Sampat, a long-time resident of the Azadpur camp.

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On the other side of the tracks, where demolition has already taken place, residents continue to sit amidst the rubble that was once their home.

Speaking at these sites, Bharadwaj alleged: “On the one hand, the BJP seeks votes in Bihar to form the government; on the other, it is demolishing the homes of poor migrants from Bihar in Delhi’s jhuggi bastis and driving them out of the city.”

The Madrasi Camp demolition was carried out following a court order citing waterlogging due to encroachment that had narrowed the width of the drain. The Model Town demolition, according to railway officials, was necessary to restore visibility of railway signals and ensure operational safety.

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AAP MP Sanjay Singh, who also visited Madrasi Camp, took to X, condemning the eviction drive. “People go broke building a house. You don’t feel pity for destroying settlements. Fifty years ago, these people came to Delhi from Tamil Nadu and built a life here. BJP ruthlessly bulldozed their homes. Modi ji’s promise of ‘jahan jhuggi wahan makan’ has proved to be hollow like many others,” he said.

As part of its movement against demolitions, AAP leaders are planning to hold many slum outreach meetings across Delhi. “The BJP government is ruthlessly demolishing jhuggis, rendering poor and marginalised migrants homeless,” Bharadwaj said. “The jhuggi visits are also an effort to mobilise support for the Jantar Mantar movement. Jhuggi residents must stand together against the BJP’s brutal campaign.”

(with PTI inputs)