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Traders up in arms against MCD

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: Traders in the historic Chandni Chowk area are up in arms against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for asking them to get their shops registered with the civic body. The MCD decision comes in the wake of the Supreme Court order asking those falling on the 2,183 newly notified roads to register their shops and commercial establishments.

Crying foul over the entire registration process being carried out in Chandni Chowk, the traders blame the Union Urban Development Ministry, the DDA and the MCD for their woes as they have to get their shops re-registered with the civic body before December 31 this year.

The problem began when the MCD included roads in the Chandni Chowk area in the newly notified list of roads. In the Master Plan for Delhi-1962, Chandni Chowk was shown as a commercial area but in subsequent zonal plans prepared by the DDA, Chandni Chowk was brought under the mixed land use category. "So when the MCD included Chandni Chowk in the new list converting it from a mixed land use area to a commercial area, I had objected to it quoting the first Master Plan for Delhi. I was assured that this was only to end all prevailing confusion regarding the commercial status of Chandni Chowk. But traders now are being asked to get their shops registered again and even pay hefty conversion charges," says Congress Councillor from Chandni Chowk Brij Mohan Sharma, who is also a prominent trader of the Walled City area.

As per the Supreme Court orders, all Chandni Chowk traders will have to pay a hefty amount for converting their shops from mixed land use category (where shopping activity is allowed only on the ground floor) to commercial category (where all the floors of a property can be used for commercial purposes), Mr. Sharma pointed out. "But the fact is that almost all the properties were legally commercial in nature for more than four decades. So why should the traders suffer for errors caused by the DDA or the MCD?" he asked.

When this matter was raised at the MCD Standing Committee meeting this past week, Municipal Commissioner A. K. Nigam accepted that it was a "peculiar problem". "We will seek clarification from the Centre on the status of Chandni Chowk which now falls under the new notification but was declared commercial more than four decades ago. We will approach the Union Urban Development Ministry and discuss whether some relief can be given to shopkeepers," Mr. Nigam had stated. He also urged the traders to get their shops registered with the MCD to avoid the sealing drive.

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