NEW DELHI, 9 November 2006 — Thousands of police supported municipal officers in the Indian capital yesterday in closing scores of illegal shops and other establishments as part of a court-driven move that has outraged traders.
The establishments to be sealed earlier in the day were the CTC Plaza, the Thapar business center and Bata showroom at Ashram Road in southern Delhi. Backed by hundreds of security personnel, a 12-member team of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi carried out the sealing operation. In the morning, slums adjoining the shops were removed. The ongoing drive is likely to affect 44,000 establishments.
In several areas of the sprawling capital, shutters, grills and iron gates of shops were sealed with red wax as armed policemen kept a wary eye on groups of sullen traders.
On Monday, India’s Supreme Court ordered authorities in the city of 14 million people to resume their drive to shut about 40,000 shops, nursing homes, automobile workshops and computer institutes illegally operating in residential areas.
Trade groups say the move will result in financial ruin for thousands of shop owners — many running their establishments for decades — and job losses for hundreds of thousands of employees. “How will I feed my children? They have shut down my business. My daughter is asking me to pay her tuition fee but I can’t,” said the distraught owner of a car repair workshop who gave his last name as Rana.
“I am an honest citizen doing business for years. Now I have been shut down by the government,” the middle-aged businessman said in front of his shuttered workshop, its lock covered by white gauze and red wax. Nearby, police, some armed with automatic rifles, kept a crowd of traders and onlookers behind a metal barricade. Police reported no violence as squads of municipal officials sealed shops.
“We are on high alert and providing officials with adequate security cover,” police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. Most schools remained shut yesterday, fearing trouble.
The civic clean-up started earlier this year after the Supreme Court said commercial outlets on at least 2,000 city roads passing through residential areas were illegal.
Urban experts say the infrastructure of New Delhi’s already crowded residential areas has been unable to cope with the blossoming of new shops and other businesses over the years. Traders argue there is a huge scarcity of commercial space in New Delhi, leaving them nowhere to go.
Traders say they had not been given enough time to move their goods and had not been provided any rehabilitation package. “We were not given enough time to remove the goods before they sealed our shops,” M. S. Gandhi, president of Kilokri Traders Welfare Association, said.
Last week, a three-day strike by traders shut markets and sparked violence. Three people died in similar protests in September. Traders’ groups, backed by politicians, are asking the government to enact an emergency law that would overrule the court order and allow the shops to remain open. Congress Councilor Ramesh Pandit resigned from MCD to protest the shop closures. “I am resigning from MCD to protest against the action taken against 44,000 law-abiding traders,” Pandit, councilor from Preet Vihar in East Delhi, said. Later 16 other Congress councilors quit in protest.
