East Delhi traders ask commissioner to tighten security

NEW DELHI: Fifteen members from east Delhi's three most important traders' associations - East Delhi Jewellers' Welfare Association, Vikas Marg Traders' Association and the Delhi Trade and Industry Federation - met Delhi Police commissioner B K Gupta on Saturday. They requested the commissioner to deploy more policemen in east Delhi and placed a five-point demand charter before him. They asked him to install CCTV cameras across 160 wholesale and 700 smaller markets; make security arrangements similar to the CWG; give arms' licence to traders; set up an advisory committee on security with participation from traders; and mark one-way routes with proper checks on bikes. The demands come in the wake of the murder of a 29-year-old jeweller, Gaurav Gambhir, who was shot on Wednesday evening inside his shop. Police are yet to solve the case.
"We are scared of keeping our shops open after 9.30pm. The commissioner listened to us patiently and told us that more cops will be deployed in east Delhi. However, there was a disagreement over who will pay the CCTV installation bills," said Anuj Attrey, general secretary of the Advisory Committee of Trade Unions.