De-sealing of shops at Meherchand market in Delhi begins after four years

NEW DELHI: After a long haul of about four and half years, many shops which were sealed on the pretext of illegal construction by the erstwhile South MCD at Meherchand market in Lodhi Colony were de-sealed on Thursday. Out of 135 shops which were sealed, 26 have been de-sealed as of now. The sealing drive which started in January 2018, on the order of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee led to the sudden closure of scores of shops which rendered hundreds jobless.

According to Sameer Arora, a shop owner, “The upper floors and basement of my shops were sealed by the South MCD which led to a loss of at least `3.5 crore in these 54 months”. He said that after sealing his shops, Covid lockdown added woes to the income and thus 15 of his workers were told to take up some other job.

Arora was not the only one who suffered from the sealing drive. Ashu Kapoor, 42, who gives his shops for rent also suffered the same. “We used all our savings during these years since people who rented our shops started vacating it,” said Kapoor. Kapoor said that he is happy with the de-sealing of shops and hopes people will start renting his shops once again.

However, it is the continuous effort of Ashok Sakhuja, president, Meherchand Market Association and Inderjeet Singh, vice-president, Meherchand Market Association which led to de-sealing of shops. “We persuaded the matter in the court for a long time and after that the de-sealing order was issued by a monitoring committee,” said Singh. He added that this de-sealing and the new redevelopment plan will pitch the market to compete against the likes of Khan Market in terms of footfall.

The sealing drive also led to the closures of shops of big branded companies which employs a large number of people. “The sealing of upper floors and basements of shops led to the closure of dozens of big brand companies like Fabindia, Cafe Coffee Day, Nivasa furniture showroom, Soma clothing showroom  and many others because these companies want large space,” said Ashok Sakhuja. The association president also said that apart from state losing the revenue, hundreds of people became jobless and are now working as daily wage workers.

According to an order by monitoring committee, initially temporary de-sealing for one month is allowed to carry out necessary rectifications of unauthorised constructions beyond Standard Plan under strict supervision of AE (building), subject to payment of penalty, and re-seal thereafter.