30 lakh livelihood safe as Congress passed Special Protection Act: Ajay Maken

New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) Congress on Sunday said that if its government had not passed a Special Protection Act-2006 to stop sealing, then over 30 lakh livelihood of the shopkeepers would have been destroyed. 

Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken, while addressing a Vishal Pratigya Rally as part of Delhi Congress’ “Jawab Do-Hissab Do” campaign at Hathi Wala Chowk in Karo Bagh area said, "Had not the Congress government passed the Special Protection Act-2006, over 30 lakh people, including shopkeepers, small, medium and middle traders would have been rendered jobless."

Maken, a former Union Minister, said that to provide relief to the people of Delhi, the Congress government had made amendments to the Master Plan-2021 in September 2013 to notify mixed use of 2183 roads, but the present Central and Delhi governments have not provided any facilities in these areas till now. 

Maken said that in 2012, the Congress government had declared 70 per cent of areas with industries as industrial areas but no development works have been carried out in such places. 

The Congress leader said that out of the existing industrial complexes, 20 were established by the Congress government, and plans for another five had also been approved by the Congress government, but only notified by the present government. 

"Unfortunately, neither the present Central government nor the Delhi government carried out any development works in these industrial complexes," Maken said.

He said that BJP and AAP are trying to mislead the people of Delhi. “The people of Delhi feel cheated,” Maken said.

He said that investment is not being done at places where it has to be done.

"Both the parties are just fighting with each other and are not paying attention to the people of Delhi," he said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress President Arvinder Singh Lovely said that the BJP government at the Centre was anti-small, middle and medium-level traders as its sole aim was to protect a few select big industrialist friends. 

He said that the sword of sealing was hanging over the heads of small, middle and medium traders, and the people of Delhi have taken a pledge to defeat the BJP in all the seven Parliamentary seats in the capital in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

Lovely said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had brought in a moratorium policy in 2009 to stop all penal actions for one year against unauthorised industrial properties and colonies, including populated areas of villages, stores, warehouses, godowns to store farm products etc., but the BJP government has not formulated any policy in this matter, but keeps the traders on tenterhooks by giving only short-term extensions to prevent sealing and demolition.

--IANS

aks/dan