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Chaos at MCD office over sealing drive

Staff Reporter

Traders oppose the drive, while RWAs are divided over the issue

THE DRIVE GOES ON: MCD official disconnecting power supply at Raghubir Nagar in West Delhi during its demolition drive on Tuesday. -- Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

NEW DELHI: There was chaos at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's slum department office on Tuesday where members of various residents' welfare associations and traders' organisations had gathered to present their views and suggestions on the ongoing sealing drive in the Capital before the three-member Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. While traders opposed the sealing drive, RWAs were divided on the issue.

The committee members had a tough time dealing with traders' leaders and RWA members. Some traders and RWA members also raised slogans against the MCD officials as they were not allowed to attend the meeting.Attempts by committee head Bhure Lal failed to pacify angry people. Ultimately the venue had to be shifted to a big auditorium.Around 80 RWAs were supposed to meet the committee today but more than 125 RWAs turned up at the venue. Similarly, around 50 traders' organisations shared their views with the committee. "We are satisfied with our meeting with RWAs and trader leaders though some bad elements did try to derail the exercise. We have received representations from different organisations and will go through it," said the committee member K.J. Rao.

During the meeting, traders demanded that the sealing drive be stopped as it was affecting their livelihood. Among RWAs some strongly objected to the idea of commercialisation of residential areas, while some favoured the mixed land use policy.Traders expressed concern over the action against shops that would render around five-lakh persons jobless. Stating that the failure on the part of various government agencies to implement the Master Plan has led to the present chaos, traders said people were facing problem due to lack of parking and traffic snarls in areas where shops have come up and the Government should urgently tackle these two problems. They also urged the committee to carry out an in-depth study on whether traders were squarely to be blamed for the current situation. However, RWAs of areas like Defence Colony, Kalkaji, Greater Kailash and Lajpat Nagar strongly opposed commercialisation of residential areas, while those of Rohini, Naraina and some trans-Yamuna areas wanted shops not to be sealed as they were meeting needs of local residents.

Meanwhile, the MCD squads on Tuesday sealed over 300 shops in seven zones besides de-sealing around 200 shops in various localities. The drive covered various areas in Kalkaji, Karol Bagh, Vishnu Garden, Sadar Paharganj and Timarpur.

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