Vardhan slams Sibal over plight of traders at Chandni Chowk

BJP’s candidate for the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat, Harsh Vardhan, on Sunday attacked sitting member of parliament and union minister, Kapil Sibal over his apathy towards the plight of traders in his constituency.

‘Where is the twice-elected cabinet minister from Chandni Chowk? Is he not expected to voice the concerns of Delhi’s traders? He enjoys the prime minister’s ear. He is in the position to influence the finance minister and for 10 years had a Congress compatriot (Sheila Dikshit) as chief minister of Delhi. Why did he ignore the traders’ plight?’ Vardhan asked.

‘Wherever I go in Chandni Chowk, I hear people saying Kapil Sibal has betrayed the traders. This is affecting the incomes of lakhs of people. He will surely be punished by the people in the coming election’, he added. 

Besides his tirade against the union minister, Harsh Vardhan has expressed grave fears that the UPA-2 government’s imposition of ‘T-2 Forms’ from 1 April may drive traders to neighboring states of UP and Haryana and plunge the economy of the city into gloom. 

‘This move will not generate revenue but breed corruption. As a MLA I applied pressure on the Sheila Dikshit government, which thought up this plan to put off the implementation for two years and that is why it was kept in limbo till 31 March. Now there is no government in Delhi. I fear the bureaucracy will take advantage of this situation for pecuniary interests. I demand a complete rollback of T2,’ Dr Harsh Vardhan said.  He has appealed to the Lieutenant-Governor, Najeeb Jung, to immediately issue an order cancelling the T-2 Plan, which would automatically come into effect on 1 April, if there is no intervention.

Vardhan went to add that today Delhi’s traders have anyway got to fill out a plethora of forms and live under a ‘punishing inspector raj’. ‘They want to pay taxes but the Congress government will not tolerate transparent systems, which would lead to manifold increase in revenue as well as smooth flow of trade. If elected to power the BJP under Narendra Modi will introduce a single-window tax system and invoke the original VAT idea,’ he said. 

He further added, ‘Delhi’s youth are leaving the city-state because the private sector has moved away to Gurgaon and Noida. Now if traders also begin to move away then what will be the condition of the economy?’