NEW DELHI: More than three lakh traders in the Capital, who have to get their shops registered with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as per the Supreme Court orders following the Centre's notifications, have again urged the civic body to accept their registration forms manually also as the online process is not working smoothly.

With just a week left to complete the registration process, only a few thousand traders have so far registered themselves with the MCD. Traders now fear that they might not be able to complete the registration process before the December 31, 2006, deadline. Traders have blamed the MCD for failing to increase the capacity of their server to cope up with the pressure of the ongoing registration process and other technical difficulties that was leading to rejection of their registration forms.

"I have already told Municipal Commissioner A. K. Nigam that traders are facing a lot of problems while completing the registration process online which has been made mandatory. As a large number of traders are logging on to the MCD website, it either fails to open or is very slow. Often the website hangs midway forcing traders to go through the process again. As a result, a large number of traders have failed to get their shops registered," claimed Confederation of All-India Traders general secretary Praveen Khandelwal.

Pointing at some technical problems being faced by traders while completing the registration process, Mr. Khandelwal said traders whose shops and commercial establishments now fall on roads converted from mixed land use to commercial were unable to complete the process.

"The reason being that on commercial roads all the floors of a property are allowed for business activity. But when a trader is putting the total floor area ratio (FAR) of his property, the computer is not accepting the enhanced FAR. However, it is only accepting floor-wise entry, which is technically wrong. Because a trader will have to do multiple registries that could lead to problems in future," he pointed out.

Similarly, certain trades on commercial and mixed land use roads like jewellery shop, footwear store and restaurant were allowed, but that too were not being accepted during the online registration process, said Mr. Khandelwal.

"Traders are ready to get their shops registered but it is the MCD that has failed to provide proper facilities to them. If traders fail to get their shops registered, the onus will be on the MCD," said Mr. Khandelwal, adding that even if the MCD's website starts working smoothly from Monday, the registration process cannot be completed within a week.

Claiming that so far only around 10,000 traders have managed to get their shops registered, CAIT general secretary said the MCD should immediately start the process manually and trade bodies were ready to cooperate. "Accept our forms manually and CAIT will ensure that all the details are fed on the MCD's website within two to three weeks. We are ready to help the MCD to establish camps in all the major markets and roads as is being done while paying income tax, sales tax or depositing property tax. Another option could be that the MCD organises special camps in their zones and accept registration forms from traders," he suggested.

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