AAP accuses DDA of blocking Naraina village access road

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday accused the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), controlled by the BJP, of blocking the only access road to Naraina village in the Rajinder Nagar constituency. Senior AAP leader Durgesh Pathak alleged that the closure has cut off the Valmiki community’s route and disrupted their water supply for the past six months.

Calling the move “anti-Dalit”, Pathak demanded that Chief Minister Rekha Gupta direct the DDA to reopen the blocked passage immediately. “When I was MLA, I had met the DDA vice-chairman and was assured the road would be opened. Instead, they barricaded even the existing passage,” he said at a press conference. “The BJP government has blocked both the road and the water supply of the Dalit community. If the DDA doesn’t reopen the passage, the community will be forced to launch a major movement.”

Pathak accused the BJP of harbouring “hatred towards Dalits”, recalling the current government had replaced Babasaheb Dr BR Ambedkar’s name from Delhi schools with CM Rekha Gupta. “There can be nothing more shameful than this. Look at Babasaheb’s stature and then at CM Rekha Gupta,” he said, urging the Chief Minister to “stop campaigning in Bihar and focus on Delhi’s problems.”

Accompanying him, Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar said the road blockade reflects the BJP’s “anti-Dalit mindset”. He said, “The people of Naraina can’t step out of their homes. What kind of democracy is this? If Dalits in the national capital are being stopped from leaving their homes, imagine their condition elsewhere.”

Naraina resident Karan said the closure has caused immense hardship to the village’s elderly and differently-abled residents. “There’s only a one-foot-wide passage now. We can’t take vehicles out even in emergencies. We just want a proper road for access,” he said, adding villagers have repeatedly appealed to DDA officials without success.