NEW DELHI: Traders' regulatory, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has sought the attention of the Urban Affairs Minister urging an Amnesty Scheme under Master Plan of Delhi-2041.
In a letter to Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri, CAIT made a case for the Master Plan of Delhi-2041's inclusion of an Amnesty Scheme to defend against shop sealing.
In the past, the Central government regularised more than 1,700 illegal colonies, which proved to be a significant relief for the residents of Delhi, according to CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal. On the same model, an Amnesty Program may be provided in MPD-41 to safeguard Delhi's traders from any additional shop sealing, and the sealed shops should be opened so that Delhi can resume its regular commercial operations.
According to Khandelwal, for the past 14 years, every attempt has been made to right the wrongs of the past, but as a result, year after year, neither the past nor the future have been able to be fixed. The Delhi vendors are still present at the same location they were in 2006, 14 years later. Thus, it is necessary to adopt acts that will have a prospective impact rather than a retrospective impact. A similar amnesty programme will provide relief for more than 10 lakh Delhi-based traders and around 20 lakh of their employees, who will have a secure source of income.
According to CAIT, it is a matter of record that the trade of Delhi was developed by traders in an unstructured way to meet the needs of Delhi residents due to the lack of timely implementation of earlier Master Plans from 1962, 1981, and 2006 and due to the lax attitude of the concerned multiple Authorities who have utterly failed in discharging their responsibilities that were spelt out in all three earlier Master Plans. Even the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Planning conceded in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in 2008 that only 16% of the commercial space in Delhi had been developed over the previous four decades, providing clear proof of the responsible Agencies' negligence.
According to Khandelwal, the stated Monitoring Committee never permitted any of the many reliefs that the Central government had granted through the proper legal channels to be put into effect, as a result, many of the stores that the government might have de-sealed are still sealed. The fundamental rights of Delhi's traders, guaranteed by different parts of the MCD Act, 1957, to be given adequate notice and a chance to respond, to appeal to an appellate tribunal, and to appeal again to the administrator—were denied to them.
In light of the fact that previous government authorities failed to develop commercial space in accordance with the needs of Delhi's expanding population, the remaining 84% of commercial space was developed by traders independently and without assistance from any other party in order to meet the needs of Delhi's residents and provide yeoman services for the collection of revenue for the State exchequer, Mr Khandelwal said.. Although Delhi's shops occasionally paid property tax, energy, and other government fees on a commercial basis, they were never granted commercial status, which is a serious injustice to the business owners. An Amnesty Scheme will clear the way for a more orderly and better expansion of trade in Delhi, he said.
