CAIT National President BC Bhatia comes out with a charter of demands

This election season The Confederation of All India Traders has rolled out with a charter of demands for political parties.

The body which claims to be connected with over 2,500 market associations in Delhi asserts that it will support parties or candidates that will guarantee substantial results for traders' matters and is combining the trading community into a vote bank.

CAIT National President BC Bhatia said that the trading community feels grossly neglected as crucial matters continue being unsettled for decades in Delhi and other cities as well.

"While the traders are considered core vote bank of BJP, other political parties keep distance from them. But the fact remains that BJP has never given due importance to us. We feel like an orphan child and no efforts were made by any political party to ensure systematic and structured growth of domestic trade," Bhartia said.

According to him, there are about 10 lakh traders in Delhi and nearly 14 lakh people are dependent on them for their source of revenue.

"If they become a vote bank, the election scenario will change completely. At least 40% of the total voters in Chandni Chowk, New Delhi and South Delhi parliamentary constituencies are traders so ignoring us will definitely cost the political parties. These constituencies were majorly impacted by sealing," said secretary of CAIT, Praveen Khandelwal.

"In order to improve the availability of rental housing across all income categories, it is pertinent that decisions on tenancy should be determined mutually by the landlord and the tenant rather than be specified by law. The Model Tenancy Act proposes to establish a framework for the regulation of tenancy matters," added Khandelwal.

"The Board constituted in 1985 had representatives from all NCR cities. It focused on shifting of some government offices to NCR areas, uniform development of all NCR cities to reduce burden on Delhi and creating trading opportunities outside the city. It also stressed upon unrestricted movement of commercial vehicles within NCR. But none of these points were implemented," said President of Chandni Chowk Traders' Associations Sanjay Bhargava, who also thinks that NCRPB needs restructuring, primarily.