Delhi traders’ fate sealed, drive peaceful

The sealing process resumed in the Capital amidst tight security on Wednesday. Though minor scuffles were reported from some parts of the city, the day largely remained peaceful. Around twenty properties were sealed.

The sealing began at Ashram Chowk in south Delhi. The area turned into a fortress with hundreds of police personnel present with the MCD staff to tackle any protest. South district DCP Anil Shukla himself supervised the operation. Among the big showrooms that were sealed on Wednesday, were CTC Plaza in Ashram and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) building in Africa Avenue.

The credit for the peaceful sealing went to the police who had taken into custody some 1500 traders from different parts of the city who had hit the street on Tuesday to protest against the drive. They were kept in custody overnight and let off on Wednesday evening.

Though there was no outright violence as was feared, some minor tension was reported. In Kilokari area, some protesters tried to break the seal of a building soon after MCD teams had left the premises. They were arrested immediately. The decision to resume sealing on Wednesday was taken by the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee after talks with municipal and police authorities on Tuesday.  On Monday, the Supreme Court had lambasted all authorities, including the municipality, the Delhi government and central government for allowing the traders to hold the Capital to ransom and ordered sealing to start at the earliest.

Meanwhile, 17 Cong councilors resign from the MCD protesting the sealing drive. Out of them, 13 were members of the MCD's standing committee. Earlier, four party councilors had tendered resignations to their party leader and Leader of the House Jitender Kochar protesting the action against 44,000 traders who had submitted affidavits to the Supreme Court assuring voluntary closure of their commercial establishments in residential areas.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court issued notices to the Centre, the Delhi government and Delhi Development Authority on a petition seeking directions to use surplus land available in the city to rehabilitate the traders affected by the sealing drive.

A bench comprising acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kailash Gambhir directed the Central and state governments and DDA to file their reply within four weeks on the petition filed by 'Saraansh', a welfare association. The petition submitted that shortage of commercial space in Delhi had resulted in commercial use of residential premises.