Ruckus during special session of MCD House, BJP members protest

The special session of the House began in the afternoon, but it was disrupted as BJP members protested, the senior official said.

Ruckus prevailed during a special session of the Municipal House in Delhi on Saturday as BJP councillors protested during the proceedings over issues related to the sealing of shops. The special session, called to discuss issues pertaining to the de-sealing of properties falling under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), was marred by sloganeering and protests by opposition members, officials said.

Leader of the Opposition in the House, Raja Iqbal Singh, and several other BJP councillors held placards and raised slogans against the AAP and the party-led civic body. Many even trooped to the Well of the House during the protest, they said. The BJP members alleged that while the MCD has called a session to discuss the de-sealing issue, the civic body sealed three shops in Amar Colony in South Delhi on Friday. A senior civic official said that the de-sealing matter to be discussed was about the decision taken by a court-appointed committee to de-seal the first and second floors of shops located in local shopping complexes here.

The sealing of the three shops on Friday, was on account of "not having licence", and the two issues should not be mixed, the official said. The special session of the House began in the afternoon, but it was disrupted as BJP members protested, the senior official said. After that Mayor Shelly Oberoi adjourned the House, and the session resumed after some time, but the protest by BJP councillors continued, officials said, adding that the House was later adjourned. The session lasted for less than an hour, the official said.

BJP’s Iqbal Singh later addressed the media on the issue at the Civic Centre. Delhi Mayor Oberoi on Wednesday said that a court-appointed panel has decided to de-seal the first and second floors of shops located in local shopping complexes. The sealing had started with such complexes in the Defence Colony area in 2017-18 on the directions of the monitoring committee for allegedly violating building bylaws, she had told reporters.

Then the mayor had said that a judicial committee was constituted by the Supreme Court to look into the legal aspects of the matter. Now, in a major relief for traders, it has been decided that those shops in these complexes will be de-sealed, she had said.