Supreme Court directs Municipal Corporation to speed up the sealing drive in the Capital Region

The Supreme Court reprimanded the Municipal Commissioners because of the lack of pace of the ongoing sealing drive in Delhi. A monitoring committee appointed by SC is keeping a close check on the sealing drive. Until now, no target or plan had been set up for the municipal officials. Until now, 1500 commercial establishments have been sealed over the city. The sealing drive is ongoing with a purpose to seal commercial establishments which disobey the provisions of Masterplan 2021. It must be noted that as per the Master plan of 2021, the traders who are using their properties for mixed purposes, have to pay a one-time conversion charge. The top court has appointed and directed the monitoring committee to identify the residential buildings where the parking is being used illegally for commercial activities. The top court had appointed and directed monitoring committee on three civic bodies & ndash South, East, and North Delhi & ndash to identify residential buildings where stilt parking is illegally being used for commercial activities. The officials of the 3 civic bodies have been citing the absence of police force since the republic day as the only reason behind the slow process. It must be taken into consideration that there has been a strong opposition from the traders because of this drive. As per an official of South Corporation, the drive in Hari Nagar had to be abandoned on Monday due to strong opposition from the traders as there was only four security personnel who could not handle the large crowd. The monitoring committee has ensured the court that the Delhi police have been ordered to provide the adequate number of officials. The resident's welfare associations observed the slow process of sealing as a tactical device and called it intentional. The members of the association have praised Supreme Court for its efforts and that the intervention of the Apex court would speed up the process.