In the backdrop of ongoing sealing drive, the Confederation of All India Trade (CAIT) has pleaded Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to bring an Ordinance to stop sealing. The traders' body also accused the Centre for delaying in bringing the ordinance saying it does not want to clear the air on the issue.

CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal in a communication sent to the Home Minister said the Delhi Government has failed to protect traders from sealing and despite of continuous request, no action has been taken by the government yet.

He also said it is an emergency like situation and required immediate intervention of the centre. "The traders whose shops sealed three months before, are facing hardship to feed their families," he said.

The Monitoring Committee has formulated a complex procedure for de-sealing of eligible shops with mandatory deposition fee of Rs 1 lakh while traders are not able to pay the amount due to financial constraints, he said.

Khandelwal further said the Committee is working in an autocratic way throwing away all rights of traders and setting their own rules under the garb of Supreme Court order. "Though MCD Act, 1957 is law of the land having all procedures for any penal action. But the Monitoring Committee is giving deaf ears to prescribed law," he added.

The CAIT has also sent similar communication to Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri.

Traders in the national Capital hit hard after building department of the municipal corporations started sealing business establishments for non-payment of conversion charges, encroachment and illegal construction on the instructions of the Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee.

Thousands of shops have been sealed since last December and there is still no sigh of relief amid all the alleged coordinated efforts put up by all concerned.

Bring Ordinance to stop sealing, traders tell Rajnath