Sealing issue dominates opening day of Delhi Assembly session

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) The sealing issue dominated the opening day of the the Delhi Legislative Assembly session today with the opposition BJP holding the State Government responsible for plight of traders and common people while the ruling party members hailed efforts by the Centre and the state government to bring relief to common man.

Speaking on a no-confidence motion in the Legislative Assembly on the issue of sealing, Leader of the Opposition in the House Jagdish Mukhi said,'' the Centre, Delhi Government and MCD are all responsible for the ongoing sealing of commercial units in Delhi.

The current situation has arisen because the Chief Minister rejected the second report of the Malhotra Committee which, though passed by the MCD, was rejected by a secretary in the Urban development department of the Delhi Government.'' Charging the state government with working in collusion with the owners of big malls to destroy the livelihood of small shop owners, Dr Mukhi said,'' the day these shops were ordered to be sealed, there was a 30 per cent rise in prices of malls.'' He demanded that the Master Plan 2021, which had been ready for the last one year, be urgently notified.

''The Master Plan 2021 should be notified before November 1 so that the sealing operation proposed to be carried out from that date is stopped. If the Government feels that the notification could be struck down by the court, it should place it under Schedule nine of the Constitution,''he said.

Asserting that the BJP would not allow sealing of shops from November 1, he said,'' if the government goes ahead with the sealing drive, it will have to face the consequences.'' Members of the ruling party, however, criticised the BJP's for putting the blame for sealing on the Delhi Government and the Centre.

Speaking on the issue, Delhi Finance Minister A K Walia said,'' the BJP is forever in search of issues with which to pin down the Government, be it the issue of shifting of industries from Delhi a few years ago, the conversion of diesel buses to CNG or the sealing issue now.'' Dismissing BJP charges that the Congress government had dithered on the issue of implementing the Malhotra committee recommendations, Mr Walia alleged that it was members of the BJP who did not allow implementation of the Malhotra Committee recommendationds during the NDA rule at the Centre.

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