With the encroachers demanding to know what has the Congress done for them, the MLAs are desperate to protect their loyal vote-banks. So much so that most situations end up in an flare-ups involving the MLA and the encroachers versus the demolition squad.

Shish Pal, MLA from Tughlakabad, landed at the Okhla police station on January 31 for disrupting the demolition in his area. He and 11 others were detained for more than 2 hours by the police. The others were later arrested and are out on bail.

Wanting to put an end to this ``punishment of the vote-banks'' he has been running around the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's office seeking a solution.

``About 5,000 houses were demolished in the area of Tughlakabad Extension. These are not the people who have moved in to the area after the elections. They have been there for the last 40 years. And they also have the no-objection-certificates (NOC) for getting power and water,'' Shish Pal said today.

Coming out disgruntled from a meeting with vice-chairman DDA P.K. Ghosh, the MLA said, ``If he says he does not know that the demolitions are taking place, then he is lying''.

Darshana Ram Kumar, MLA from Ram Nagar, was an angry woman. She not only lost a lot of loyal voters after demolitions in the area, but she could not even meet Dikshit today to relate her problems.

``Most of the locality falls under development area of the DDA. These are poor people, who have been somehow living with a shelter on their heads. Why does not the DDA first demolish hotels in the area which are equally encroached?''she said.

``And when we came to complain to Dikshit, she did not even have the time to talk to us. We wanted to tell her that we do not even get a notice before the houses next door are pulled down. The voters are getting disappointed,'' she complained.

Kunwar Karan Singh, MLA from Model Town, had come up with the idea of sending a memorandum to the Lieutenant-Govenror Vijai Kapoor protesting against the demolitions. More than 30 out of the 51 Congress MLAs signed the document. Not seeing that this was a week-long drive of demolitions, he says, ``Yesterday it was Delhi Cantonment, today it was Mandawali, tomorrow it will be Model Town,'' and asks, ``Why is are none of the encroachments in BJP constituencies being touched''?

Dikshit is patient. On how can she control what the Lt. Governor Vijai Kapoor, as the chairman of DDA, has to direct his men to do, she pointed out. ``We can at least say what we feel,'' she said. She has decided to lead her MLAs to meet the Lt. Governor.