New Delhi, May 31: Demolition accompanied by fire at a slum cluster in a west Delhi area today threatened to raise a political storm with three ministers of Delhi's Congress government staging a sit-in at the site and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit cutting short her Srinagar visit to join them. Transport minister Ajay Maken, health minister A K Walia and education minister Raj Kumar Chauhan rushed to Kirti Nagar this morning after coming to know that civic authorities had arrived there to demolish jhuggis and a fire had subsequently erupted in the cluster.
Several jhuggies were burnt in the Reshma Camp of Kirti Nagar after fire erupted there at around 0800 hours when civic authorities were demolishing illegal structures in the area, fire department sources said.
The slum cluster of about 1,000 jhuggis has been put on notice by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for demolition.
Congress has been opposing the move and in fact exactly a month ago, Dikshit staged a five-hour-long dharna at the site in the constituency of opposition BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana to prevent the demolition when DDA men arrived there.
Congress, which considers slums its vote bank and does not want to take any chances in view of upcoming assembly polls, suspects that a conspiracy was behind today's fire.
Party sources said Dikshit, who is in Srinagar to attend Congress chief ministers' conclave, has been personally monitoring the developments since the morning and issuing directions to her ministers and party men.

Bureau Report