lDelhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) President Devender Yadav today met the victims of the massive fire that destroyed the slums at Shahbad Dairy, Rohini Sector 18, Bengali Colony, on August 31 and assured the poor people that the Congress Party stands with them in their hour of crisis. Devendra Yadav said that the families of 45 slums, which went up in flames in the massive fire, have become homeless and lost everything, and the Government should give proper compensation to the affected people and help them in every possible way to salve their life.
Devender Yadav said that the displaced slum dwellers got no help from the administration till the third day today, which was proof enough of the insensitivity of BJP’s Rekha Gupta Government. He said that after the massive fire, no BJP leader or Government official came to site of the fire at Shahbad Dairy slums. He said that first the slums were bulldozed and now there is no initiative from the government to help the fire victims, as all their items like food stock, clothes, utensils and cash/important documents were gutted in the fire.
It was a matter of concern that even after 72 hours of the fire incident, BJP’s Chief Minister, Minister or any responsible officer has visited them, while during the elections, BJP leaders had promised the slum dwellers of ar better life and welfare by staying with them overnight in the slums.
Fire incidents occurred not once but many times in the slums at the Shahbad Dairy area. He said that before 31st August, 80 slums were reduced to ashes in a fire on 5th February, 2025, 150-200 slums were gutted in a massive fire on 1st May, 2024 and hundreds of slums were destroyed in a fire on 19th February, 2024. He said that the homeless families have suffered huge losses of goods and property in these fires, but in the last two incidents, no help was given by the BJP government, while the Aam Aadmi Party has always used them as mere vote banks.
Yadav said that Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had announced that no slum will be demolished in Delhi, but she did not make any concrete announcement about displacing lakhs of slum dwellers. He said that while the flats constructed for EWS people under the Rajiv Rattan Awas Yojana and JNNRUM should be immediately allotted to these poor people. He said that the BJP leaders only make announcements on every issue related to the poor of Delhi without doing anything for their welfare. He said that Chief Minister Rekha Gupta should announce construction of houses for the Shahbad Dairy slum dwellers immediately and until this work was completed, alternative arrangements should be made for the housing of the people living in miserable conditions.
