Lockdown rent: Delhi BJP questions Kejriwal, warns of protest

Delhi State BJP on Monday sought answers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's promise of payment of lockdown rent of tenants and announced that the opposition party will not shy away from taking to streets if he does not fulfill his promise.

"Chief Minister Kejriwal had promised to pay the lockdown rents of the poor in March last year. However, it has been 216 days since then, but he has done nothing to keep his words despite High Court's intervention into the matter," BJP Delhi State President Adesh Gupta said while addressing a press conference here on Monday.

On July 22, the Delhi High Court ruled that the promise made by the Chief Minister was enforceable and gave the AAP government six weeks' time to take decision on the announcement that the state would pay rent on behalf of poor tenants, majorly comprising migrant labourers.

On Friday, the Delhi Government informed the High Court that it is currently considering the issue and will make a decision in two weeks' time.


"Other than paying rents, the AAP government had also promised free ration, Rs 5,000 to autowallahas, compensation to the kin of Covid warriors who lost their lives, but neither of these promises have been fulfilled till date," said BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Ram Veer Singh Bidhuri.

"If the chief minister fails to keep his words, we, on behalf of the people of Delhi, will take to streets," the BJP Delhi State members added.

Hundreds and thousands of migrant labourers left for their native town from Delhi and other states after a strict lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March last year.


Both the Centre and the State governments were not prepared for an exodus on such a large scale. The pandemic also highlighted the dearth of data available on migrant workers across country.

The Delhi government has started working on building an Aadhaar-linked database of all migrants in the union territory engaged in the unorganised sector - IANS