Delhi: In run up to MCD polls, conversion charges latest flashpoint between AAP, BJP

Property owners have to pay conversion charges to the MCDs if the status of the area in which they are located changes from residential to commercial. However, Delhi convenor of AAP’s Trade and Industry Wing Brijesh Goyal said that Old Delhi’s markets have always been commercial. “The BJP is orchestrating this. The AAP assures the 2 lakh traders of the Walled City that in the next few months, when the MCD elections will be held and the Aam Aadmi Party wins, then all notices will be cancelled,” he said.

The BJP, however, defended the move saying that traders and trade federations of the Walled City should deposit the fee as it will help them rid their shops of the unauthorised tag.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that as per the Master Plan of Delhi 1962, apart from the Chandni Chowk main road, the main roads of Dariba, Lal Kuan, Chawri Bazar, Ajmeri Gate, G BRoad, Naya Bazar, Khari Baoli, Katra Badyan, Naya Bans, Church Mission Road along with Sadar Bazar’s ground floors were considered 100% commercial.

“Similarly, a few katras and galis of Chandni Chowk had wholesale shops. But most lanes have very few commercial shops. No doubt, the Walled City has been a trading hub since the Mughal and British era, but business activities were restricted to the aforesaid areas,” he said.

According to Shankar, after 1977, commercial activities spread fast into these lanes while the residential population shifted to newly developed areas of Delhi. “Apart from densely populated areas, hardly any street in the Walled city has more than a few families staying there,” he said.

From time to time, the Master Plan has been amended to give mixed land use or pedestrian shopping street status to lanes, whereby traders can pay conversion charge and legalise their shops, Shankar added.

Goyal, however, said, “The Master Plan 2021 clearly states that the markets which have existed before 1962 come under a particular sector. Be it Chandni Chowk Market, Sadar Bazaar, Khari Baoli – all these markets are mentioned in the masterplan, these are called commercial markets. The conversion charge is applicable when a residential area has been converted into a commercial one. But there is no point in charging conversion fees in a Mughal-era market, which is already a commercial market.”

He said, “The MCD is sending notices to shops asking for proof of establishment before 1962. But generations have changed since, many have died, many businesses as well as owners have changed…. In such a situation, how will a shopkeeper provide proof? I think this is absolutely absurd and unfair.”