Stop ‘fake fight’, seek relief from SC: Maken tells AAP, BJP

Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken on Tuesday asked the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) to end their "fake fight" over the ongoing sealing drive and suggested that they instead seek relief from the Supreme Court for the traders hit by the move.

The comments came after a meeting of AAP and BJP leaders at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence to find a solution to the issue ended in hostility, without any result.

The BJP walked out of the meeting, alleging AAP leaders and workers misbehaved with BJP members. The saffron party also filed a police complaint naming four AAP legislators.

Maken said both the parties have "failed miserably" to provide relief to the traders affected by the sealing drive.

"The affected traders are approaching the Supreme Court and its monitoring committee for respite from sealing, while the AAP and the BJP, who should do this, are fighting each other," he said during a visit to meet traders on Tank Road.

Maken, who was the minister of state for urban development during the UPA government, later tweeted: "AAP+BJP MLAs physically fighting each other... To convince their supporters that they are fighting for them!"

The three BJP-controlled civic bodies have undertaken the sealing drive initiated by a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee for nearly a month. Commercial premises have been sealed for failing to deposit conversion charges according to provisions in the Delhi Master Plan 2021.

The AAP has demanded that the Central government either bring an ordinance or amend the master plan to stop sealing.

The BJP has demanded that the AAP dispensation should come out with a notification on mix land use to give relief to traders.

The BJP delegation had visited Kejriwal's residence to find a solution for traders hit by the sealing drive. But the visiting leaders walked out of the meeting and alleged that AAP legislators misbehaved with them during the meeting there.

Maken said the Congress believed in finding a solution to the problem, instead of the "fake fight" the BJP and the AAP and have engaged themselves in.

He wondered if the BJP government at the Centre and the AAP in Delhi can protect the traders from the sealing drive as was "successfully" done by the Congress government in 2006-07.

Last week, Maken in a detailed presentation discussed the issue of sealing and suggested ways to tackle it.

Citing the Congress's experience, he had said: "In 2006, when the sword of sealing was hanging over traders, the then Congress-led Centre approached the court and enacted a law and made amendments in the Master Plan of Delhi 2021." Maken and leaders from the other two parties have been visiting traders, whose commercial units have been sealed.