The Bharatiya Janata Party-led East Delhi Municipal Corporation will continue to take action against unauthorised encroachments, Mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said on Friday, reported PTI. Aggarwal said that no “illegal activity” will be allowed in the name of “Rohingyas and Bangladeshis” in his jurisdiction.

Aggarwal accused the Aam Aadmi Party for first complaining about encroachments and later sounding an alarm when the municipal body took action against them.

“AAP may create whatever noise it can, but action against encroachment will continue,” Aggarwal said.

Aggarwal also said that unauthorised Aadhaar cards should be cancelled and a police investigation should be initiated in those cases.

Demolition drives came under the scanner after the BJP-controlled North Delhi Municipal Corporation razed several Muslim-owned shops and properties in Jahangirpuri, claiming that they were illegally built.

The drive began on April 20, four days after communal violence erupted in the locality when a Hindu religious procession armed with guns and swords passed a mosque. The demolitions continued for two hours despite a Supreme Court order to stop the drive.

A day later, the BJP’s Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta said that civic bodies in the city’s eastern and southern parts should also carry out similar demolition drives.

“First, the Congress allowed Rohingya migrants and Bangladeshis to settle,” Gupta had claimed. “Now, the AAP is giving them free ration, electricity and water, and is giving money to them.”

East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee Chairman Beer Singh Panwar said that the Aam Aadmi Party was “frustrated” and resorting to “tactics” due to a delay in civic body polls, reported PTI.

The Municipal Corporations of Delhi elections were scheduled to be held in April. However, the polls were deferred indefinitely after the Centre said it wanted to merge the three civic bodies in the city.

The three civic bodies are North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

What the South Delhi mayor said

On April 25, Mayor of the BJP-led South Delhi Municipal Corporation Mukesh Suryan had announced a month-long demolition in his jurisdiction.

Suryanhe does not have the power to order such actions, but said that the drive will be held in Shaheen Bagh, Okhla and Tilak Nagar, among other areas.

Shaheen Bagh and Okhla were two of the many sites where protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act took place in 2019. Many of the protestors were Muslims.