On 24th March 2023, the Public Works Department of the AAP govt in Delhi demolished the stairs outside the under-construction headquarters of the Congress party in Delhi, saying that it was encroaching on a footpath. This has come hours after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from his Lok Sabha membership owing to his conviction in a case of criminal defamation by a court in Surat.
A bulldozer arrived at the under-construction congress headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyay Road and demolished the stairs. PWD officials said that it was found that the stairs were encroaching on the footpath towards the Deendayal Upadhyay Road.
Public Works Department today conducted an anti-encroachment drive at the under-construction new headquarter of the Congress party on DDU Marg in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/6qA4Q7rvpe
— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2023
“A PWD survey revealed that the stairs were encroaching a footpath, thus necessitating the demolition,” the PWD official who accompanied the demolition team said.
According to photos, the demolished stairs led to a small single-story house in front of the main building, probably meant for security or similar purpose, and they were not connected to the main 6-story building. It can be clearly seen that the 5-step stairs were built on the footpath. After the removal of the stairs in front of the structure, it will difficult to access the small structure from the road, and they will have to make changes to it to make it accessible.
It is notable that although located on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Road, the main entrance of the Congress headquarters, named Indira Gandhi Bhawan, is on Kotla Road on the opposite side. The new Congress office will have two gates, which open on the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg on the south and the Kotla Road on the north. However, the party has decided to make the Kotla Road entrance its main gate, which will also serve as the official address of the party, even though it is narrower than the DDU road. Apparently, this has been done to avoid getting associated with the road named after the RSS ideologue, and also to have a different address than the BJP headquarters.
At present, the Congress has its headquarters at a government bungalow on 29 Akbar Road in Delhi. The grand old party was allotted land on DDU Road in 2019 to build a permanent headquarters, but the construction was started much later, and it has not been completed yet. The party has been issued several notices to vacate the govt house and move to the allotted permanent location. At Present, BJP and AAP have their headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyay Road.
The BJP headquarter was inaugurated by PM Modi in February 2018. Prior to this, the party’s headquarter was located at a govt bungalow at 11 Ashoka Road.
Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership has been disqualified today. He was convicted by a Surat court in Gujarat in a defamation case. He was sentenced to 2 years. Rahul Gandhi was an MP from Wayanad. Now, a bulldozer action is also taken at the under-construction Congress headquarters.
This is not the first time that an anti-encroachment drive is conducted at a political party’s office. Earlier, a bulldozer action was taken at the Aam Aadmi Party office on Deendayal Upadhyay Road. The only difference is that the party itself had removed the illegal construction. In fact, the new office of AAP and Congress is situated adjacent to each other. A few days ago, the Aam Aadmi Party demolished the porta cabin on the footpath outside the office after a notice was received from PWD.
