As parties trade blame, sealing drive continues
NEWDELHI: Amid the blame game between political parties with respect to the sealing drive in the city, the civic agencies continued to target the shops running commercial activities from residential complexes.
On Tuesday, the North and South Delhi Municipal Corporations sealed 65 shops in eight markets for running commercial activities on roads notified under the mixed-land use (MLU) in Delhi Master Plan 2021.
As per officials, no commercial activities are allowed on upper floors of establishments on MLU roads. “And unlike previous sealing drives — where shops (running on commercial roads or local shopping complexes) could be de-sealed after payment of ‘use conversion charge’ — no relief will be given to these traders. They would have the only option of closing the establishments. Or they could file an affidavit saying that they will not use the property for commercial activities and then use it for residential purpose,” said a senior official from the North DMC, who is privy to the matter but not authorised to speak to the media.
“We sealed more than 10 PG accommodations that were running from the first floor on Deshbandhu Gupta Road, which is notified under MLU. The action will continue unless any relief comes from Centre,” he said.
The civic agency sealed 37 shops, including eight shops in Outram Lane, eight in Sector 8, Rohini, 14 on Deshbandhu Gupta Road, Karol Bagh, seven at Mirdard Road, Sadar Paharganj and eight at Nangia Park.
The SDMC, too, targeted 20 properties in Rajouri Garden, Punjabi Bagh (West) and Hari Nagar for carrying commercial activities on roads notified under MLU.
The sealing drive started in city from mid-December on the direction of Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. So far, the SDMC and North DMC have sealed nearly 1,350 shops from December 15, 2016 to January 30. Of this, the SDMC has sealed over 510 properties, including in upscale Defence Colony, Meharchand and Hauz Khas markets while the North DMC has sealed 840 properties.