Tuesday, Oct 26, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | New Delhi
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, OCT. 25. Taking a leaf out of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's book, the Member of Parliament from New Delhi, Ajay Maken, supported by a large number of affected people today confronted the Delhi Government's "sealing squads'' and prevented them from closing industrial units in the Khyala area of North-West Delhi. It may be recalled that Ms. Dikshit had last year stood before a bulldozer to protest against the demolition of slum clusters at Kirti Nagar in West Delhi by the then BJP-led Government. The new development is bound to raise political temperatures within the ruling Congress and widen the gulf between Ms. Dikshit and her one-time close aide and confidante, Mr. Maken. Interestingly, Mr. Maken's aggressive stand over forced closure of industries in the Capital's residential areas is bound to unsettle the plans of the former Chief Minister and BJP leader, Madan Lal Khurana, and also give the Congress an edge in the fight for "justice" for the lakhs of affected people. The incident took place in the morning when various teams of nearly eight to 10 SDMs reached the Khayala area where such small non-polluting units have been operating. The area also comes under the list of the proposed 24 residential areas that are sought to be declared as industrial by the Delhi Government. As soon as the teams of SDMs started the process of sealing the units, thousand of people under the banner of 47 industrial associations gathered at the spot and protested against the move. Mr. Maken, who had promised that he would reach any place in Delhi to protest the sealing, was informed of the incident. He immediately reached Khayala, which happens to be close to his previous Rajouri Garden Assembly constituency, where he warned the sealing squads that he would not allow them to seal the small-scale units as they were non-polluting in nature and that they should go back or face the wrath of thousands of people who had gathered there. He made it clear that any adverse reaction from the SDMs would force him to sit on dharna and could lead to an unpleasant situation. Sensing that the situation was not in their favour, the SDMs along with other officials left the spot without sealing a single unit. Later, addressing a huge crowd that had gathered there, Mr. Maken said he had taken up the cause of the industrial owners and labourers as he felt that justice was not being done to them. He assured them that in future also he would stand by them and would resist any attempts to seal units. Soon after that, the local Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, Dayanand Chandela, along with his Councillor wife, Dayawanti Chandela, also reached the spot and extended their support to the protest against sealing of units. Mr. Maken's stance has certainly livened up the issue of industries closure and is bound to turn the heat on the Delhi Government as well as the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre to find a solution to resolve the issue that threatens to go out of hand in the coming days.
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