A group of traders, mostly from Mayapuri where violence broke out during a sealing drive last week, gathered on the stage after the Prime Minister and senior leaders left the venue, and surrounded trader leader Praveen Khandelwal.AdvertisingThey told Khandelwal, who is also a BJP member, that they were unhappy the PM did not speak a word on sealing despite assurances by BJP leaders in the run-up to the event that he would.
Traders’ union president from Mayapuri Inderjeet Singh said, “Seven units have been sealed and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has a list of more than 785… We were expecting some assurance. If he would have spoken a line on sealing, it would have been enough for us.”
Khandelwal told traders that the Mayapuri case is different from sealing in areas like Defense Colony and Amar Colony. In Mayapuri, he said, it is done by DPCC, which is under Delhi government, while in other parts, it is being done by the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.
He said that if BJP comes to power, the party will come up with an amnesty scheme to provide relief to traders. Another trader from Mayapuri, Manmohan Singh, said, “We know the DPCC is under the Delhi government but we still expected Modiji, being our PM, to put our minds at ease from the fear of sealing.”
Union Minister Vijay Goel said, “Traders from Mayapuri had come to me as well and I told them sealing in Delhi is being done on the directions of the court, and is not under the purview of the PM. They need to wait for a year and by that time we will be in power in Delhi as well… then we will ensure that these things are stopped.”
