Ruckus prevailed during a Special Session of the municipal House here on Saturday as BJP councillors protested during the proceedings over issues related to sealing of shops. The special session, called to discuss issues pertaining to de-sealing of properties under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), was marred by sloganeering and protests by opposition members, officials said.
Leader of Opposition Raja Iqbal Singh and several other BJP councillors held placards and raised slogans against the AAP and the party-led civic body. Many even trooped into the well of the House during the protest, they said.
The BJP members alleged that while the MCD has called a session to discuss the de-sealing issue, the civic body sealed three shops in south Delhi’s Amar Colony on Friday.
A senior civic official said the de-sealing matter to be discussed was about the decision taken by a court-appointed committee to de-seal the first and second floors of shops located in local shopping complexes.
The sealing of the three shops on Friday was on account of “not having licence”, and the two issues should not be mixed, the official said. The special session of the House began in the afternoon but was disrupted as BJP members protested, the senior official said.
After that, Mayor Shelly Oberoi adjourned the House. The session resumed after some time but the protest by BJP councillors continued, officials said, adding that the House was later adjourned for the day.
“”We called a special session to discuss the desealing issue. We wanted to pass the resolution that officials should immediately de-seal the shops that were sealed six years ago in local shopping complexes. We spoke about the benefit of businessmen in Delhi but BJP has not let the House run even for a single time,” said Oberai.
Earlier, amid the din, a resolution was passed by the House stating that the shops in local shopping complexes that were sealed about six years ago should be de-sealed.
The session lasted for less than an hour, the official said. The BJP’s Iqbal Singh later addressed the media on the issue at the Civic Centre.
There was “no intention to de-seal” the shops, otherwise, as per the “judicial committee’s report, the shops should have been immediately de-sealed”, he claimed.
He questioned the mayor, saying if the MCD was “waiting for the opposition’s protest before initiating the de-sealing of shops”. Singh accused the AAP of engaging in “false propaganda and deceit”.
He warned that if de-sealing processes don’t start within 24 hours, the BJP would protest from the streets to the assembly and will even gherao the mayor’s office. Mayor Oberoi had on Wednesday said that a court-appointed panel has taken a decision to de-seal the first and second floors of shops located in local shopping complexes.
The sealing had started with such complexes in the Defence Colony area in 2017-18 on the directions of the monitoring committee for alleged violation of building bye-laws, she had told reporters. Then a judicial committee was constituted by the Supreme Court to look into the legal aspects of the matter, the mayor had said.
Now, in a major relief for traders, it has been decided that such shops in these complexes will be de-sealed, she had said.
