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BJP reaches out to traders, says it took measures to provide relief from sealing
New Delhi
New Delhi
Ahead of the assembly elections in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday assured traders, one of its core voters, that it will solve the problem of sealing of commercial establishments. At a traders meet organised by the party at Talkatora Stadium on Monday, the party also hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party for ignoring concerns of traders.
Speaking at the event, Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri said it the BJP which has taken measures to address the problem of sealing. “We understand your pain. Our government has taken measures to provide relief to traders from sealing. We have made several amendments in the Master Plan of Delhi-2021 to provide relief to traders. We have looked for legal ways to address their concerns,” said Puri. He also spoke in detail about the Centre’s decision to confer ownership rights to residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was to address the traders along with Puri and commerce minister Piyush Goyal, didn’t attend the event. The turnout at the event, however, was low compared to a similar function organised by the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections which was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tweeting a video that showed empty chairs at the event, the deputy CM said even the city’s businessmen had moved away from the BJP. “Traders did not attend the convention because they are scared that the BJP-led MCDs may seal their enterprises,” he said in another tweet.
Later in a press statement, Sisodia said, “We have worked for the betterment of businessmen and that’s why brought down the tax. We had stopped the raid raj by the authorities.” He asked the BJP to roll back the sealing drive in Delhi, claiming it had “devastated” traders.
Since 2016, Delhi traders have suffered due to series of developments such as demonetisation, sealing and economic slowdown. But traders say that it is the sealing which had the maximum impact on their business and the “fear of sealing continues”. They say that sealing is going to be a key issue in the upcoming assembly elections.
Anil Sharan, a trader from Preet Vihar in east Delhi, said, “For the trading community, it is going to be the main issue. It’s been two years and there has been no solution to the problem. Traders continue to live in fear that their shops would be sealed on the orders of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. But now that Puri has assured, we hope the Centre does something about it.”
The BJP said that the AAP government in Delhi did little for the trading community. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal didn’t protest when shops were being sealed on monitoring committee’s order. “Before coming to power, he (Kejriwal) had illegally restored electricity connections, which were disconnected owing to non-payment of bills. But he didn’t protest when shops were being sealed despite being in power,” Tiwari said. He spoke about the incident where he had broken the seal of a house in protest in 2018. While dismissing the case against Tiwari in this matter, the Supreme Court had rebuked him and called his act “misplaced bravado”.
Tiwari said, “If the AAP government cared about traders, it would have notified 351 streets long back. The notification is pending for years with it.”
Union minister Piyush Goyal too hit out at AAP for stalling all the Centre’s welfare schemes. “The AAP government in Delhi is ignoring the welfare of traders in the city. They are stalling all the welfare measures taken by the Modi government. But our government is committed to the welfare of traders and have taken decision to give pension to traders,” said Goyal.
The event was attended by Union minister Harsh Vardhan, Rajya Sabha MPs Vijay Goel, Delhi MPs Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, leader of the opposition in Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta along with other senior BJP leaders.
