Date:22/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/22/stories/2006092217590400.htm

New Delhi

CPI (M) condemns police firing

Staff Reporter

Accuses Centre of failing to deal with sealing, demolition issues

NEW DELHI: The Delhi State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has condemned the killing of four persons in police firing at Seelampur here during protests against the sealing drive in the Capital on Wednesday. It has also accused the Central Government of completely failing to deal with the issue of sealing and demolitions.

According to the CPI (M) State Committee, while refusal to recognise the validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 -- which sought a one-year moratorium on demolitions and sealing -- added to the chaos, the Government's response to "the usurpation of powers of the legislature and executive by the higher judiciary" only led to more confusion.

However, the CPI (M) warned that the Government's plan to summon a special session of Parliament and possibly amend the Constitution should not be used to provide legal status to all recommendations of the Tejinder Khanna Committee report.

The CPI (M) said it was opposed to recommendations like those banning commercial activities in posh colonies while giving a free hand for the same in poor colonies and opening the land market (an estimated 22,000 hectares) to private builders. The Committee was also against reducing the status of the Delhi Development Authority to a mere planning body, low cost housing construction by private agencies and lack of clear-cut provisions for allocation of land/space for hawkers.

In the wake of Wednesday's violence, the Committee has demanded that the Government take action against police personnel responsible for the firing in Seelampur and provide adequate compensation to the victims' families.

It has also demanded that all sealing and demolition operations be stopped and "the orders of the higher judiciary questioning the supremacy of the legislature and authority of the executive" be rejected. The Committee also called for consultation with every political party, social organisation and representatives of different sections of the working people to create an equitable policy of land use that does not discriminate against small shopkeepers, poor colonies and lakhs of those earning a living in the informal sector. "The new Master Plan should be finalised only after the entire process was completed."