Delhi: BJP to raise sealing issue in Parliament

The party is set to demand halting the sealing work for next 6 months

Police officials outside a shop in Delhi's Khan Market/ PTI

New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday said it will raise the issue of sealing in the national capital in the Budget Session of Parliament and demand it be stopped for six months. "Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari will raise the issue of traders of Delhi in the Budget Session of Parliament starting on January 29 to demand for stopping the sealing process in Delhi for six months," Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Kuljeet Singh Chahal told reporters here. He said that Tiwari will also demand increasing FAR (floor area ratio), re-notifying the conversion charge rates and make required amendment in the Delhi Master Plan. The sealing drive was initiated last month by the three BJP-led Municipal Corporations as per the instructions of a Supreme Court-appointed panel. The owners of city shops sealed either did not pay conversion charges -- the fee paid for converting residential premises into commercial one or flouted permitted FAR (floor area ratio) norms. Chahal said a delegation of BJP leaders under the leadership of Tiwari will also meet Union Housing and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and request him to increase FAR. Chahal said that earlier in the day, the three municipal corporations in a joint session passed a resolution for uniform FAR for buildings of commercial and residential use. "The resolution passed in the joint session also included -- commercial conversion charges on all the properties in Delhi should be recovered only for 10 years and the owners, who have already deposited the charge in one lump sum under one time scheme, should be exempted from the charge," he said. The BJP leader said the MCDs have also demanded that the Delhi government complete the work of notifying 351 roads for commercial use at the earliest. "The basement of the buildings should be included in the FAR and approved for commercial use according to the rules and the amended conversion charge of Rs 22,274 per square meter for some colonies should be fixed category wise by the central government," he said. The BJP also urged Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and Delhi government to immediately forward the resolution passed by the municipal bodies and request the Additional Solicitor General to request the Supreme Court to stop the sealing process for six months in Delhi.