The festival season approaches and in Lajpat Nagar there’s a lot to celebrate. Thanks to manoeuvres in high places, a whole year’s worth of stress and worry has been lifted from the business community.
For the last 12 months or more Delhi has been in a planning crisis. Well – it’s had a planning crisis for a long time but recently matters came to a head.
When the British left in 1947, New Delhi was a garden city of tree-lined streets, low white bungalows, a smart colonnaded shopping centre and splendid government buildings interspersed with Mughal and other monuments.
Since then it has grown not only like Topsy but like all Topsy’s brothers sisters and cousins too. The tragedy of partition brought refugees from Punjab who settled in places like Lajpat Nagar and built lives and businesses with remarkable drive and energy. Afterwards came migrants from every part of India. Tamils from the south came as domestic helps and shop workers. Trouble in Kashmir impelled houseboat owners and others to morph into businessmen and to Delhi they came with their beautiful shawls and carpets.
In any part of Delhi, except the poshest, basements and ground floors hum with activity. Garments are made, embroidery is done and goods of all sorts are stored and or sold.
In the smart districts residents naturally object to such goings on but in our noisy Lajpat Nagar the residents are the ones who own the businesses.
Last year, the Supreme Court came out with orders banning commercial activity in residential areas. Premises were sealed in official raids; a terrible fate, especially if your stock was inside, as you never knew when it might be released.
For months “sealing” was on everyone’s lips, slightly qualified by. “When”, “Where next” and “Who”. People squirrelled away their stock and lay low. No one knew where they stood. Most were paying commercial house tax and electricity on their premises so their position was ambiguous. There were riots in some places and stress on everyone. Even small businesses support surprisingly large numbers of people. If the orders were fully enforced, there would be massive social unrest.
But now there’s a stay of execution. “Sealing-wealing”, as it’s known in local rhyming slang, has been stopped for 14 months while Government finds a solution. Last year Lajpat Nagar’s shops boycotted Diwali in protest, a massive gesture. This year they can celebrate as usual.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: businesses, commercial activity, Diwali, festivals, planning, sealing
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