Resolution to provide one time amnesty to commercial units in Delhi

New Delhi, May 4 (UNI) In a move that could mark beginning of a showdown between the BJP-dominated MCD and the UPA Government at the Centre, the Standing Committee of the Corporation today passed a resolution providing for one time amnesty from sealing for all units in Delhi that have come up before January 1, 2007.

The resolution, introduced by the Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee Yogender Chandolia, recommended to the Centre that mixed land use or commercial activity on residential areas or roads that existed prior to January 1, 2007 be regularised by charging nominal penalty.

The resolution was passed even as the Congress members in the committee called it a ''farcical move'', that would not bring any relief to people of Delhi.

Criticising the resolution, which seeks to provide relief to all those who had failed to get respite from sealing under the 2021 Delhi Master Plan, Leader of the Opposition in the MCD House Jai Kishen Sharma said,''the scheme is a farce and has no meaning after the Congress Government at the Centre has already notified the Master Plan for Delhi to bring relief to people of Delhi from sealing.

Bringing it at this juncture is ironical as it was during the BJP-led NDA rule at the Centre that the then Urban Development Minister Jagmohan had rejected a similar scheme, consigning it to the dustbin.'' Giving details of the scheme, Chairman of the Standing Committee Vijender Gupta said,''the scheme is meant to give relief from sealing to those who have not been covered in the definition of mixed land use in the MPD 2021 but who have been carrying out business for the last several decades.

These people also deserve to get relief from sealing. It is not their fault if their areas do not fall under the requisite commercial level prescribed by the MPD 2021 for a road to fall under the mixed land use category.'' The Amnesty scheme does not, however, cover those who have already been given relief under the MPD 2021.

He said that it was the lacunae in the MPD 2021, which was focussed on providing relief to areas rather than individuals, that necessitated the bringing of the Amnesty scheme.

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