People's Democracy

DELHI

CPI(M) Demands Ordinance To Regularise Industries

THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) Delhi state committee has asked the union government to immediately promulgate an ordinance to amend the Delhi Master Plan 2001 to regularise industries in non-conforming areas with 70 per cent or more concentration.

Terming the joint decision by the central and the state governments in this regard as “half-hearted”, the Party, which has been in the forefront of the struggle for regularisation of these industries, said the decision does not take into account several major dimensions of the problem.

Addressing a joint news conference on October 28, the Party central committee member Jogender  Sharma and Delhi state secretary P M S Grewal demanded immediate halt to the sealing and disconnection of electricity and water supplies of these industries.

They also demanded that industries located in Lal Dora area with an electricity load of 20 KV should also be regularised through the same ordinance as these industries are approved by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi vide its order issued in December 1975 and are a crucial source of income for villagers who have lost their agricultural land.

They also demanded that bakeries and goldsmiths, being non-polluting establishments, should also be included in the ordinance for in situ regularisation and the list of categorisation of industries should be done away with as the hazardous and polluting industries in Delhi have already been closed.

Pointing out the lacunae in the decision announced by the Delhi government, Jogender Sharma said it does not make clear how and when the decision would be implemented. Reacting to reports that the Delhi government would approach the Supreme Court in this connection, he said “this would be an exercise in futility in the absence of an ordinance to regularise these industries.”

He recalled in this connection that the CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet in a meeting with the prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh had  also demanded immediate  promulgation of the ordinance to regularise these industries.

Responding to a query about Congress MP and former Delhi minister Ajay Maken’s espousal of the cause of these industries and criticism of the Delhi government, the Party leaders said “it was a double-edged weapon to contain the Left, which has been leading the fierce struggle of workers and manufacturers, and to resolve their own party problems.” The CPI(M) leaders held both the present Congress and  the previous NDA government guilty of “double  speak”. (INN)