Hungerstrike call by CM a political drama, says CAIT

The Confederation of All India Traders ( CAIT) on Saturday derided the announcement of hungerstrike by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal over the ongoing sealing drive and asked him to bring a legislation to stop it. Calling the hungerstrike “political drama”, CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said Mr Kejriwal was shedding “crocodile tears”. Mr Khandelwal, in a release, said the trading community was not impressed as Mr Kejriwal was not doing what he was capable of but trying to “score political mileage” on the issue. The Delhi government should pass a Bill for moratorium on sealing and forward it to the Central government for approval, he said. The sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court- appointed monitoring committee against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes, and is being implemented by the three BJP- led Municipal Corporations of Delhi. Till now over 1,000 shops have been sealed across the city. Questioning Mr Kejriwal’s visit to Amar Colony Market on Friday, Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta said neither did he see the papers of the shopkeepers nor made any announcement to provide any relief to them. “He just kept on talking about hunger strike. He did not even talk about giving relief to the shopkeepers by approaching the court. Why has the Delhi government not yet notified the 351 roads approved by the L- G for commercial use,” Mr Gupta asked.