Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Tuesday constituted a nine-member Special Committee to look into the ongoing sealing drives across the city and allegations of corruption by BJP-led municipal corporations in the process. Referring the matter to the nine-member committee headed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator from Palam Assembly seat Bhavna Gaur, the Speaker asked the committee to submit a report in this regard in the next Assembly Session.
The sealing drive being carried out by the municipal corporations was discussed in the Assembly for most of the past two days with the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP blaming each other for the drive.
It may be noted that the sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes, and it is being implemented by the three BJP-led municipal corporations in the national Capital.
The AAP MLAs alleged that businessmen were being “harassed” by the corporations and that there was “huge corruption” involved in the process.
It would be pertinent to mention here that the Monitoring Committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006 for sealing the premises of erring businessmen. But in 2012, the apex court asked the committee to stop the drive. In December 2017, the Supreme Court ordered resumption of the sealing drive and revived the Monitoring Committee.
The AAP had then opposed the committee's revival in the Supreme Court and later accused the municipal corporations of corruption in the process.