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Sadar Bazar traders hold march outside Delhi LG VK Saxena's office over sealing

NEW DELHI: Having failed to get any respite from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s sealing and closure notices served for misuse of properties for commercial purposes in Sadar Bazar, traders’ associations held a peace march outside the LG secretariat on Thursday.

They also met MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti and former mayor Jai Prakash to share their concerns.

The commissioner later called a joint meeting with officials.

Rakesh Yadav, president of the federation of Sadar Bazar RWAs, said the idea was to grab the lieutenant governor’s attention. “Considering at present the control of MCD is with the LG and all officers are reporting to him, the traders decided to approach him for help. We handed over a memorandum to the LG office and requested to meet the LG,” said Yadav.

He added that traders continue to get notices served in which it is written: “Upon verifying all files and relevant papers, the premises are found to be misused. Therefore, the trader is directed to bring premises into permitted use in 48 hours, file an affidavit in the prescribed format to stop the misuse and pay a penalty amounting to twelve times the conversion charges, failing which premises will be sealed without further notice.”

Jai Prakash said that during the meeting with the MCD commissioner, he assured to call a joint meeting soon and discuss the matter in detail. “Traders were later asked to submit a memorandum to the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee (because action was taken on their direction) and deputy commissioner of City Sadar Paharganj Zone,” said Yadav.

The Chamber of Trade and Industry has also written to the LG on this issue. CTI chairman Brijesh Goyal said that due to the sealing action in Sadar Bazar, there is panic even among shopkeepers in other markets. “Traders are getting sealing threats. Now that the Delhi Master Plan 2041 is about to be notified soon, we request officials to wait for some time on the matter. In the plan, it is written that markets that have more than 70% commercial activity come under the category of commercial markets,” said Goyal.

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