Protest for RLD chief Ajit Singh's bungalow to be turned into memorial hits traffic

NEW DELHI: Police on Tuesday barricaded several roads in the Lutyens' zone and shut down the Race Course Road Metro station as protesters took to streets demanding conversion of RLD chief Ajit Singh's bungalow into his father's memorial.
A Mahapanchayat was called at 12 Tughlaq Road to chalk out a plan to convert the house into former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh's memorial. Soon traffic snarls were reported from the major streets passing through the New Delhi area.Later, though, the police managed to remove the protesters even as Tughlaq Road remained closed throughout the day.
The protesters sat on the roads and refused to move till the government agreed to declare the bungalow as memorial. One of the protesters, Dharampal Singh, who had come from Haryana said there were other MPs who had been living in these bungalows for years yet the same weren't vacated. "Since Haryana is going to polls the next month, the BJP is doing this to gain mileage. But we will not let our leaders be humiliated. When Meira Kumar can get her house converted into her father, Babu Jagjivan Ram's memorial, why can't there be one in the name of former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh? Even Lal Bahadur Shastri, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi have memorials."
The government, however, had rejected Ajit Singh's demand for his father's memorial. It cited the Union Cabinet's decision in 2000, which had banned conversion of government bungalows into memorials. According to a traffic police officer, Prithviraj Road and Safdarjung Road were open for traffic but streets snarls were reported from Aurangzeb Road, Teen Murti, Rajesh Pilot Road as traffic had to be diverted from Tughlaq Road. By afternoon, snarls were reported from Prithviraj Road, Man Singh Road and Aurobindo Marg trailing back to INA Market. Police said they had detained a few protesters.
Singh, who lost the recent Lok Sabha election, was issued an eviction notice by New Delhi Municipal Council. Last week, authorities had disconnected power and water supply to the bungalow.