Political parties out to make sealing a poll plank

New Delhi: The political parties in the national capital are all set to make ‘sealing’ their key poll plank as hundreds of traders have faced the impact of sealing drive in several markets in Delhi. However, contradictory to it, a section of traders feel that it is not the prime issue.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress have both promised to end the drive, which was undertaken by the municipal corporations led by BJP on the orders of a Supreme Court-appointed committee since December 2017.

In addition to several rounds of protests, traders’ bodies, including the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), have been very vocal about the issue, demanding promulgation of an ordinance to stop sealing in the city.

CAIT’s secretary general Praveen Khandelwal agreed that lakhs of traders have felt the “pain of sealing.” But he claimed that several of them are willing to put “national security” over the “sealing issue” in this election.

“We have been demanding an ordinance from the Centre to stop sealing, but it has been in vain so far. We have little hope from other parties too. So, we are considering other important issues before voting, like national security,” he said.

Former president of Paper Merchants Association, Delhi, said that the sealing drive “really broke the back of traders” and frustration is bound to be there as it is a matter of livelihood.

He added that the trader community is a “sizeable vote bank” in Delhi and every party “seeks to woo it.”

However, several traders of Amar Colony in South Delhi and Karol Bagh in North Delhi are still feeling frustrated about the issue and alleged that no party has ever tried to “resolve” the problem but only used it for “political gains.”

Amar Colony’s Old Double Storey Marker had faced major action during the sealing drive conducted by the SDMC on the instructions of the monitoring committee and on March 8 last year, as many as 350 shops were sealed in a single day.