All three municipal commissioners, on Wenesday, 31 January, appeared before the Delhi Assembly's special committee on MCDs and sought two days to submit a survey report on the land use pattern of 351 roads.
After the meeting, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, who is also the member of the panel, told mediapersons that commissioners of east and south municipal corporations were not "confident" about the survey conducted in 2007 and before its submission, they want to authenticate it themselves.
If the 351 roads are notified for mixed land use by the Delhi government’s urban development department, commercial activities there would be legal, thus effectively shielding traders on these stretches from sealing.
The committee, headed by AAP MLA Bhavna Gaur, directed the commissioners to come with the survey report on 351 roads in its next meeting, which will be held on 5 February.
MCD commissioners have sought one-two days to submit the survey report. Once the survey report is submitted, there will also be pressure on the Delhi government to submit the same in the Supreme Court so that these roads are notified.Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP MLA
Proceedings of the nine-member committee, headed by AAP MLA Bhavana Gaur, were open to media, which, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said was to bring "transparency" in this matter of utmost public importance.
Asked about the sealing drive on these 351 roads, the MCD commissioners said they did not know whether the drive was being carried out by the civic bodies.
Earlier this month, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta had alleged that the AAP dispensation was not notifying the roads due to which traders on these stretches were facing the threat of sealing.
A decision to notify the roads has been pending since 2007.
During the meeting, the civic bodies' officials told the Assembly committee that waiving conversion charges comes under the ambit of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
Bharadwaj said the commissioners told the panel that around Rs 3,000 crore has been collected as conversion charges.
"They have diverted 80 to 85 percent of the amount collected as conversion charges to some other works," he said.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)