Based on a committee’s recommendations, Jantar Mantar has been denotified as a designated protest venue.
Now, with the venue no longer designated for protests and security restrictions keeping people away, he fears his business could take a hit of up to 40% in a month. Gupta, who has been running a food stall selling chole bhature, rajma chawal, matar kulcha and pulao near the protest site for over 20 years, said the current situation was unlike anything he had experienced before. “I have been here for over 20 years and have seen many protests. For Ajay Kumar, who has operated a paan shop in the area for 26 years, the immediate concern is the loss of business. The Union Home Ministry had constituted a committee to examine alternative venues where citizens could exercise their right to organise protests and demonstrations, according to an order issued by Delhi police commissioner Anurag Kumar on October 11.
For traders who have built their livelihoods around the area’s daily crowds, the change has introduced a new uncertainty: whether the people who once gathered to protest will now take their business elsewhere, leaving the shops around Jantar Mantar struggling to survive. (With agency inputs) You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Delhi | Silver Rate in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi | Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Petrol Price in Delhi | Diesel Price in Delhi | CNG Price in Delhi | LPG Price in Delhi Stay updated with the latest Delhi news.
He said food stalls immediately outside the protest site had remained closed during an ongoing protest for the first time in his experience. Based on the committee’s recommendations, Jantar Mantar was denotified as a designated protest venue, the order said. In July, the site saw massive protests led by the CJP over the NEET-UG paper leak earlier this year, which, according to the account provided, led to the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
NEW DELHI: For more than two decades, Vijay Gupta’s food stall near Jantar Mantar has relied on a steady stream of customers, including protesters who gather at the capital’s prominent demonstration site. The decision has raised concerns among shopkeepers whose businesses have long benefited from the crowds drawn by protests. Before Jantar Mantar, Delhi took its anger to Boat Club: How the Capital’s protest map changed With barricades in place, a heightened police presence and several shops near the site remaining shut, traders say the drop in footfall is already hurting their earnings. Those used to bring in substantial business. We have never faced losses of this scale before. This time, protesters are not being allowed, and office-goers are also not coming,” PTI quoted Gupta as saying. “Whenever there is a protest, small food stalls like ours see a rise in business. Since Jantar Mantar was a designated protest site, we could count on a steady stream of people during demonstrations. Now that it has been denotified, footfall is likely to decline, which will inevitably affect our earnings,” he added. But he also questioned the broader implications of moving demonstrations away from Jantar Mantar, a prominent site for public dissent in the national capital. A revised standard operating procedure for organising demonstrations at Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground would be issued separately. The decision comes amid several calls for protests at Jantar Mantar in recent days by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and other organisations demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner. The demonstrations followed allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and the mass deletion of voters. Jantar Mantar has witnessed several high-profile demonstrations in recent years. Download the TOI App.
Vijay Gupta is among several small traders facing an uncertain future after the Delhi Police on Monday denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated venue for demonstrations, naming Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in east Delhi as alternative locations, news agency PTI reported.
This shop supports our family and pays for my sister’s education,” he said. Rajiv said the family would have to assess the likely losses before deciding how to manage its finances. “We will have to sit down and assess the losses we are likely to incur before making financial decisions accordingly,” he added.
For Rajiv, who goes by his first name and runs another paan shop nearby, the uncertainty extends beyond his daily income. His family depends on the shop, which his father ran before becoming too unwell to work. “It is a very confusing time for all of us, to be honest. My father used to run this shop but is now too unwell to work.
Because there is hardly anyone around, this protest has brought a wave of losses.
This is supposed to be a busy street,” Kumar told PTI. “It almost feels as if when Parliament is here, protesters are being forcibly sent to different corners of the city, where they can keep raising slogans but hardly anyone will take notice,” he said. “As a shopkeeper, I feel that now that Jantar Mantar has been denotified, the roads and metro stations should at least be opened so people can come to their offices. He also expressed concern that shifting demonstrations to other parts of the city could make it harder for protesters to draw public attention. A lone security guard from a nearby office building was among the very few customers seen visiting the area during the day.
The decline in footfall was evident on Monday.