Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising "concern" over the sealing drive in the capital and suggested that "legalities for mixed land use be notified immediately".
"I have written to the Prime Minister, Minister for Urban Development Hardeep Singh Puri and Lt. Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal to say that this situation where properties are being sealed and no work is allowed is causing a lot of serious problem in the city," Dikshit told IANS.
The Congress leader said the people and traders of the city "don't know where they stand".
"So clarification should be done and a policy should be brought. And whatever changes are required to be brought in the DDA plan, it should be done immediately," she said.
Lashing out at the officials, the former Chief Minister asked: "It is very strange when all the sealing drive was carried out in the city where were these officers?"
"Why didn't they stop it then?"
Dikshit wrote to Modi after affected traders and citizens met her expressing their distress.
In her letter, Dikshit mentioned how during her tenure in 2016, the government faced a similar situation.
"At the request of my government, the then Central government issued an ordinance to save the properties."
She said that over 2,183 roads were notified to save properties practicing business and trade.
"In the same order, basements were allowed to be used by professionals to ensure continuity of their profession. Sadly properties are being sealed even in the notified areas."
Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Dikshit said the BJP had promised in its 2017 MCD manifesto that once convergence charges are paid, sealing would not take place on such properties and they would be regularised.
"But now I am told that even those who have paid the convergence charges are being sealed. I suggest that the Urban Development Ministry notifies the legality of mixed land use and a meeting of all stakeholders and political representatives be called to resolve the issue."
Following the order by a Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, several commercial establishments in the capital have been sealed by BJP-ruled civic bodies for failing to deposit conversion charges according to the provisions in the master plan.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi Development Authority approved changes to the city's Master Plan -- in a move to provide relief to traders hit by the sealing drive.
The proposed amendments include increasing Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of local shopping complexes (LSCs) from existing 180 per cent to 300 per cent and regularising agricultural godowns on 12-metre wide roads.
--IANS
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