BJP woos Delhi traders, attacks AAP govt
NEWDELHI:Ahead of the assembly elections in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday assured traders, one of its core voters, that it would solve the problem of sealing of commercial establishments. At a traders ‘meet organised by the party at Talkatora Stadium on Monday, the party also accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP_ of ignoring concerns of traders.
Speaking at the event, Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri said it the BJP which has taken measures to address the problem of sealing. “We understand your pain. Our government has taken measures to provide relief to traders from sealing. We have made several amendments to the Master Plan of Delhi-2021 to provide relief to traders. We have looked for legal ways to address their concerns,” said Puri. He also spoke about the Centre’s decision to confer ownership rights to residents of 1,731 unauthorised colonies.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was to address the traders along with Puri and commerce minister Piyush Goyal, didn’t attend the event. The turnout, however, was low compared to a similar function organised by the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections ,which was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tweeting a video that showed empty chairs at the event, deputy CM Manish Sisodia said the city’s businessmen had moved away from the BJP. “Traders did not attend the convention because they are scared that the BJP-led MCDs may seal their enterprises,” he said in another tweet.
Later in a press statement, Sisodia said, “We have worked for the betterment of businessmen and that’s why brought down the tax. We had stopped the raid raj by the authorities.” He asked the BJP to roll back the sealing drive in Delhi, claiming it had “devastated” traders.
Since 2016, Delhi traders have suffered due to series of developments such as demonetisation, sealing and economic slowdown. But traders say sealing had a big impact on their business even as the “fear of sealing continues”. They say that sealing is going to be a key issue in the upcoming assembly elections.
Anil Sharan, a trader from Preet Vihar in east Delhi, said, “For the trading community, it is going to be the main issue. It’s been two years and there has been no solution to the problem. Traders continue to live in fear that their shops would be sealed on the orders of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. But now that Puri has assured, we hope the Centre does something about it.”
The BJP said that the AAP government in Delhi did little for the trading community. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal didn’t protest when shops were being sealed on monitoring committee’s order.