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raders' body, 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 communication sent to Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri, CAIT has pitched for granting an Amnesty Scheme under Master Plan of Delhi-2041 for protection against sealing of shops.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that in the past the Central government had regularised more than 1,700 unauthorised colonies which has proved to be a major relief to people of Delhi. On the same pattern, an Amnesty Scheme may also be given in MPD-41 to protect the traders of Delhi from any further sealing of shops and the shops which have remained sealed should be de-sealed for resuming normal business activities of Delhi.

Khandelwal said during the last 14 years all efforts were made to set right what happened in the past with the result that year by year, the past could not be rectified and the future also remained continuously disturbed. Even today after the lapse of 14 years, the Delhi traders stand at the same place where they were in 2006. Therefore, there is a need to take actions with prospective effect and not with retrospective effect and such an Amnesty Scheme will bring relief to more than 10 lakh traders of Delhi and nearly more than 20 lakh of their employees will be assured of their livelihood.

CAIT has said that it is a matter of record that non timely implementation of earlier Master Plans of 1962, 1981 and 2006 and due to lethargic attitude of the concerned multiple Authorities who have utterly failed in discharging their responsibilities those were spelled out in all three earlier Master Plans, the trade of Delhi was developed by traders in an unstructured way to meet the requirements of people of Delhi. Even the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development had filed an Affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2008 and admitted that various government agencies were able to develop only 16 per cent of the commercial space in Delhi in the past four decades which is ample evidence of dereliction of duties by the concerned Authorities.

Khandelwal said that various reliefs granted by the Central government through due process of law were never allowed to be operative by the said Monitoring Committee with the result that large numbers of shops which could be de-sealed in pursuance of the actions of the government are still sealed. The traders of Delhi were denied their fundamental right of issuance of sufficient notice and time to reply, making an Appeal to Appellate Tribunal, making another Appeal before the Administrator as granted under various sections of MCD Act,1957.

Khandelwal said that in view of the fact that previous government authorities failed in developing commercial space as per requirements of growing population of Delhi, rest of the 84 per cent commercial space was developed by traders on their own and without any support from any quarter in order to meet the needs of people of Delhi and rendering yeomen services for collection of revenue for the State exchequer. The shopkeepers in Delhi were charged property tax, electricity and other government charges from time to time on a commercial basis but were never given commercial status which is a grave injustice with the traders. For a better and structured growth of trade in Delhi, an Amnesty Scheme will pave the way, he added.