Dipen Agrawal, President of Chamber of Associations of Maharashtra Industry & Trade (CAMIT) welcoming the stand taken by Hon’ble Mayor, Sandeep Joshi on the irrational diktat of Municipal Commissioner instructing traders and their staff to mandatorily undertake Covid-19 test, said that the present NMC administration presumes themselves to be the supreme authority and they give little thought to follow the Rule of Law.
Dipen Agrawal said that the administration, which is duty bound to work for welfare of the citizens, is threatening, harassing and discriminating traders by arbitrary use of discretionary powers under the Epidemic Act and the Disaster Management Act. The traders are the citizens of the city first, who rubbed shoulder to shoulder with administration in providing food and other basic necessities to the migrant workers, homeless and others during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. They are finding it hard to cope with the frequent impractical and baseless directives of the Municipal Commissioner.
It is being observed that the administration, by making eye catching headlines about probable imposition of lockdown, created uncertainty in city. Administration without any scientific evidence has time and again claimed that the rush in market was the main reason for spike in positive cases and by suddenly declaring two days lockdown at four hours’ notice created panic among the citizens resulting in unprecedent forced rush in markets across the city. The arbitrariness in the working of administrative officers can be evidenced from the fact that without promulgating a legally enforceable order regarding mandatory covid-19 test by traders, the departmental officers have issued notices threatening dire consequences of sealing the shop in absence of covid-19 test report of owner and staff in the premises.
Dipen Agrawal appeals to Dr. Nitin Raut, Guardian Minister for Nagpur District, Sandeep Joshi, Mayor Nagpur City and all the elected members of the Corporation to ensure that administration restrains itself from such unmindful actions else traders will be left with no other option than to come on roads and fight such highhandedness tooth and nail.
