Kejri calls all-party meet at residence to discuss sealing
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday invited the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress state leadership for an “all-party meeting” at his residence on Tuesday to find solutions to the ongoing sealing drive in the city that has irked traders and shop owners.
Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener, wrote letters to Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken and BJP’S Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari, inviting them for the meeting to discuss the problems being faced by traders due to the sealing drive in some major Delhi markets.
Maken, who had suggested on Saturday that AAP and Congress leaders meet, took to twitter to thank Kejriwal and agreed to discuss the issue with him on Tuesday. He added that it was a good move to invite the BJP because the three municipal corporations engaged in the sealing drive are run by the BJP.
The Delhi BJP was yet to officially confirm if it will be joining the meeting though some party leaders said that they were “unlikely” to attend because chief minister’s invitation was a ”drama”. The leader of Opposition in the Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta said: “The last time we went to meet Kejriwal on this issue, we were manhandled. He is not serious about solving the traders problems.”
Till Sunday, over 3,000 shops and commercial establishments across the city have been sealed in a sealing drive that started on December 15 on the directions of a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.
In separate letters to Tiwari and Maken, Kejriwal wrote: “A terrible situation has emerged in Delhi due to sealing. For public welfare it is necessary that we should rise above politics and come together to find a solution
KEJRIWAL SUGGESTED IN THE LETTER THAT NOT MORE THAN THREE PEOPLE FROM EACH PARTY SHOULD BE AT THE MEETING
to the problems that have come up due to sealing.”
Kejriwal suggested in the letter that not more than three people from each party should be at the meeting so that it can be held smoothly. “My government and the party will do everything possible in its domain to stop sealing in the city and re-open the sealed shops,” he wrote.
On Friday, Kejriwal had threatened to go on a hunger strike if the sealing drive was not stopped by March 31. He had made the announcement at the Old Double Storey market in Lajpat Nagar IV, where four policemen and two traders were injured on Thursday after the police personnel allegedly baton-charged businessmen protesting the sealing drive.