AAP reiterates demand for ordinance against Delhi sealing drive

The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday reiterated its demand for a central government ordinance against the ongoing sealing drive in the national capital that has caused huge business losses to traders.

"The BJP is not serious about finding a solution to the sealing drive. It is because of their carelessness that the people and businessmen of Delhi are in trouble," AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told the media here.

"We have been saying that there is only one solution to sealing and that lies with the Centre -- ordinance..., only ordinance," he stressed.

The sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes, and it is being implemented by the three BJP-led Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCDs).

The committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006. In 2012, the apex court asked the committee to stop the drive. But in December 2017 it ordered resumption of the drive.

Bharadwaj said shops were sealed in Defence Colony market after the resumption of the drive. "Then also, we said it is a conspiracy to embezzle money. The businessmen are being fooled. 

"From (BJP leader) Vijay Goel to (Delhi BJP chief) Manoj Tiwari to (Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs) Hardeep Puri, they all have been cheating the traders by making false promises of ridding them of sealing. They haven't been able to do anything, neither will they be..."

AAP Trade Wing Convener Brijesh Goel said that the Supreme Court had stayed the proposed amendment to the Delhi Master Plan 2021, which sought to legalise extra construction in both residential and commercial complexes.

"The amendments proposed by the DDA in the Master Plan 2021 were incomplete and improper and that is why the proposal was rejected by the Supreme Court," he said.