‘Dark Diwali’ for Amar Colony traders
NEW DELHI: Traders in Amar Colony market’s double storey said it is going to be a ‘black Diwali’ for them this year as they see no hope of their shops being desealed during the festive season.
The market, which usually buzzes with activity before Diwali, wore a deserted look on Tuesday. Traders said they have been staring at uncertainty, and their losses have been mounting at a time when sales are supposed to soar and businesses thrive.
On March 8, 350 shops were sealed in Old Double Storey, Lajpat Nagar- IV for land use violations. The action was taken on the direction of the Sc-appointed monitoring committee.
Failing to get any relief despite having rounds of meeting with the monitoring committee members and Land and Development Authority (L&DO) officials, the shopkeepers are now looking up to their political leaders for help.
On Tuesday, the BJP’S Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari visited the market and assured that he will take up the matter with Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Puri on Wednesday.
“Due to sealing of shops at least 10 people working here and their families are affected,” he said.
Calling the monitoring committee ‘corrupt, dishonest and carrying sealing drive on pick and choose basis’, Tiwari said that the committee is not taking any action against hundreds of illegal properties in Okhla.
“On the riverbed of Yamuna, thousands of illegal houses have been constructed and their numbers are increasing in Okhla, Noor Nagar, Batla and neighbouring area. If the monitoring committee will not take action against them, then we will invite Delhiites to break seals of properties. I will be appearing before the SC and raise the matter, “he said.
The shopkeepers, however, demanded more concrete action. “The market is dead. Our backs have been broken by the sealing drive. It is demoralising to be sitting idle at home and doing nothing for no fault of ours,” said Mandeep Singh Kohli, general secretary of double storey market trader association.
Vijay Taneja, president of the trader association said that despite offering to pay the ‘misuse’ penalty, the monitoring committee and L&DO officials were not ready to hear them.
The double storey in Amar Colony market was developed and constructed by L&DO of Union ministry of rehabilitation in the ’50s and allotted to the displaced persons after partition, said a senior SDMC official.
However, over a period of time, the common space meant for movement of pedestrians has been encroached in front as well as backside. “Since it was not possible for the enforcement team to remove the structures from public land, on the directions of the monitoring committee, properties were sealed,” said the SDMC official.