Slum dwellers Protest at Kejriwal's House in UP

New Delhi/Ghaziabad, Feb 15 (IANS) A group of around 20 slum dwellers Sunday protested outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's house in Uttar Pradesh over demolition of their shanties in the capital, police said.

The protestors, residents of east Delhi's Shahdara area, demonstrated in the morning outside Kejriwal's Kaushambi apartment in Ghaziabad.

The slum dwellers from Delhi protested for around half-an-hour, Indirapuram police officer Hardayal Yadav told IANS.

Yadav said it was a peaceful protest and the demonstrators returned to Delhi after getting assurance that proper action with be taken in the matter.

The protestors claimed that eight shanties were Saturday demolished in Shahdara even as Kejriwal was taking oath as the new chief minister of Delhi at the Ramlila Maidan.

"Our shanties were demolished without any prior information. Women police officers manhandled us and our children and they also damaged our household items," a protestor Sushila, 40, said.

Denying that anyone was manhandled, Delhi Police officials, however, said that these people had built shanties illegally on government land and the police only tried to stop them.

Sources said the chief minister discussed the matter with Shahdara MLA Ram Niwas Goel and asked him to look into it.

"Only five shanties were demolished as these were constructed on government land. Four of the shanties were built just a day before the assembly elections. The police came in action when local people complained to me as well as the police about the issue Feb 13," Goel told IANS.

"The police had picked them (the people residing in the shanties) up Saturday, but I managed to get them released from the police station. I met them around 4 p.m. today and asked them to give the name of the policemen who manhandled them, but they are not ready to give the names of any police official," Goel added.

In his pre-poll rallies, Kejriwal promised not to demolish even a single shanty across the city.