346 shops sealed on 12th day, 4240 sealed till now

New Delhi, Apr 13 (UNI) Even as the Union Urban Development Ministry yesterday moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) not to undertake sealing operations in the capital during the next six months, raising hopes for an early solution to the crisis, the MCD continued it's avction by sealing 346 shops on the 12th day today.

An application filed in the Apex Court yesterday by Mr S Mukherjee, Under Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry, also sought directions to the civic body to complete the exercise of identification of mixed use roads/streets in residential areas within a period of six months in a systematic and organised manner as per the provisions of the master plan.

The Central government has also pleaded that such a study of the problem to find a solution to growing use of residential areas for commercial purposes required help of experts, resident welfare association, architects and others.

The application before the Court is being seen as an attempt by the Central government to bring to a halt the ongoing sealing process in the national capital without entering into confrontation with the court.

Meanwhile, the sealing of shops in residential areas continued with the maximum number of 87 shops being sealed in the Shahdara (South), 58 in Najafgarh, 50 in West zone, 40 in Civil Lines, 39 in Sadar Paharganj, 34 in Karol Bagh and 21 in central zone.

At the same time, the MCD desealed 179 shops - 77 in central zone, 47 in city, 22 in Najafgarh, 16 in Rohini and 14 in Shahdara (North).

With today's sealing, a total of 4240 shops in the residential areas have been sealed since the operation began on March 29.

These include 521 unlicensed meat shops situated in various areas of Delhi.

Of the 4240 shops sealed till now, the maximum number of 829 shops have been sealed in the Karol Bagh area, followed by 532 in Civil lines, 469 in Rohini, 450 in Central zone, 398 in Shahdara (South), 369 in Najafgarh and 309 each in South and West zones.

During the last week, there has been hectic political activity in Delhi to halt the sealing of shops in residential areas.

Several Municipal councillors from Delhi earlier this week threatened to resign from their posts if the Delhi Government and the Centre did not urgently come out with an Ordinance or a Bill.

Nine Congress MLAs from the Outer Delhi Assembly segment recently threatened to wage a "decisive battle" if no decision was taken in the matter by the Government.

The MLAs met Lieutenant Governor B L Joshi and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday to immediately put a stop to the sealing and demolition drives in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the BJP continues with its 'Jail Bharo Abhiyan' to protest the sealing in Delhi. While BJP's Vijay Kumar Malhotra courted arrest on the issue on Tuesday, Mr Vijay Goel courted arrest yesterday.

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