Jantar Mantar denotification to hit small businesses as shopkeepers fear 40% sales drop

On October 12, Delhi Police denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site and named Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in East Delhi. The move has raised concerns for small businesses that were already dealing with shrinking sales amid tight security and reduced office-goers in the area since last week. Several shops were shut near the protest site due to barricades and heightened security deployment.

“I have been here for over 20 years and have seen many protests. 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,” said Vijay Gupta, who runs a small food joint selling chole bhature, rajma chawal, matar kulcha and pulao. He claimed that during protests, sales used to shoot up drastically; now he predicts a rough 40 per cent drop in his sales.

"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. According to Gupta, for the first time in 20 years, food stalls around the protest site have remained closed.

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Ajay Kumar, a pan shop owner in the area, says that now that the protest site was denotified, “the roads and metro station should at least be open”.

"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.

Another Pan shop owner, Rajiv, raised similar concerns. He inherited the shop from his father; it is the only source of income for his family and pays for his sister's education. “We will have to sit down and assess the losses we are likely to incur before making financial decisions accordingly.”

The decision comes in the backdrop of a protest that has been raging for nearly a week against the CEC, Gyanesh Kumar, over several alleged irregularities in the management of the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revisions of the electoral roll.