Sealing protest: Delhi traders on 24-hour bandh
November 07, 2006 12:00 IST
Faced with the imminent resumption of sealing of unauthorised commercial establishments in Delhi, traders went on a 24-hour bandh on Tuesday downing shutters and holding demonstrations to protest the Municipal Corporation of Delhi action.
All markets in Delhi, retail and wholesale, were closed to protest the sealing, said Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of Confederation of All India Traders.
Demonstrations were being held in various parts of the capital to register protest against the sealing drive and while there were no reports of any violence so far, traders from south Delhi gheraoed the MCD office in Green Park.
The CAIT had on Monday given the bandh call after the Supreme Court refused to grant the traders any relief from the sealing drive and the Centre subsequently said it had no option but to abide by the court orders.
The bandh has received support from both ruling Congress and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the capital.
"All markets in Delhi are closed today. But we have excluded essential services from the bandh," Khandelwal said.
He said private medical practitioners and chemists were supporting the bandh by sporting black bands on their arms, but added that the health services would remain unaffected.
He also said autorickshaw associations had extended support to the strike and autos would remain off the roads. All schools in Delhi remained closed in view of possibility of violence during the bandh.
Angry traders continued to protest against the Supreme Court's order in favour of resuming the sealing drive in New Delhi. They damaged public property and blocked traffic during the protest.

Police halted over 1,500 traders from various part of the city who were vandalising public transport by blocking and pelting stones on the roads after the SC's order to resume the drive.

According to CNN-IBN, the drive will affect about 5,40,000 shops and 27,00,000 traders across the city. Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), said that the resumption of the drive is a complete breakdown of the government and administration. So, they had to take extreme steps to oppose the drive.

The traders protested from all over the city including Kamla Nagar in North Delhi, Mayur Vihar, Vikas Marg, Seelampur in East Delhi, Green Park, South Extension, Lajpat Nagar in South Delhi, Rajouri Garden, Rohini in West Delhi and Karol Bagh in Central Delhi.

Most of the schools in New Delhi remained closed today, and the sealing drive was halted. The Group of Ministers, headed by Shivraj Patil are planning to meet with SC's monitoring committee to work out the sealing schedule in the capital.