SC panel doing ‘pick and choose’ sealing, says Manoj Tiwari

The committee is targeting small commercial establishments and neglects the massive structures raised on public land, Tiwari said.

The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee of conducting ‘pick and choose’ sealing in the city.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said the issue of sealing had been extensively discussed and they had decided to condemn the misuse of court orders and denounce the ‘pick and choose’ method of sealing. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

On the second day of its executive meet, the party passed a resolution to ‘strongly’ oppose ‘irrational and mindless’ sealing for alleged violation of municipal bylaws.

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, while addressing a gathering at the meet, said the issue of sealing had been extensively discussed and they had decided to condemn the misuse of court orders and denounce the ‘pick and choose’ method of sealing.

“At several places, such as Okhla, massive illegal construction has been done on government land, where the construction mafia has even encroached upon the Yamuna banks. It is unfortunate that the committee remains occupied in targeting small commercial establishments and neglects the massive structures raised on public land,” Tiwari said.

The BJP has decided to back Tiwari, who is also a Member of Parliament from northeast Delhi, two days after the SC issued a contempt notice against him for breaking a seal in Gokulpur village, which was sealed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation for alleged violation of the Delhi Master Plan.

After the monitoring committee submitted a report on MP’s involvement in the seal-breaking incident before the court, it had directed Tiwari to appear before it on September 25.

“We will go to the court and inform the judges that on the pretext of their instructions, a sealing racket is being run in Delhi and several serving and retired bureaucrats are a part of it,” Tiwari said.

“We had earlier run an anti-sealing agitation and BJP workers even courted arrest. If need be, we will again court arrest and go to jail,” he said.

The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee refused comment on the matter.