New Delhi: Senior AAP leader Atishi, accusing BJP councillors within the MCD of extorting traders using show-cause notices, on Wednesday said: "The BJP, which has been collecting commercial property taxes, conversion fees, and parking fees for many years, abruptly refused to grant licenses to shops and restaurants in unauthorised areas and issued show-cause notices to poor traders."
According to the MLA, the BJP is on a quest to extort as much money as it can in its last three months in power. Previously, health and trade licenses were issued to shops, dhabas, and restaurants via the MCD but now it has been transferred to the MHA, which is only granting licenses to those who are in officially notified areas and the MHA issued show-cause notices after refusing license renewal of shops in unauthorised colonies. She said that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister will go and beg for votes in unauthorised colonies in the name of regularisation but still not let the residents run their businesses there.
Atishi added: "The people of Delhi are now fed up with the BJP-ruled MCD's blatant corruption. The BJP has also realised that the moment the elections take place in a few months, the public in Delhi is going to kick them out of power from the MCD. Hence, the BJP-led MCD and its councillors have made up their mind to indulge in as much extortion and corruption as possible and fill their pockets up in the little time that they have left."
One of MCD's key responsibilities is distributing licenses, however, in the recent past, the BJP-ruled MCD removed this facility from its portal and shifted it to the MHA portal. But since the licensing issuing process has been shifted to the MHA portal, only shops and restaurants located in officially notified commercial areas are able to obtain licenses.