Claiming that the four day laser show would end up reducing sales of the showroom owners of Connaught Place, the president of New Delhi Traders Organisation on Monday said, "Connaught place is a commercial place not a cultural place, that government needs to understand. We are already witnessing negative sales and now the proposed show would further decrease our sales."
The traders of the market are objecting to a proposal where the Delhi government has batted for making the inner circle of the CP pedestrian for four days of the event on the occasion of Diwali.
Deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia had said that parking arrangements are likely to be made beyond the outer circle and battery-operated vehicles would be arranged to ferry the visitors to the Central Park. "The modalities are being worked out and would be shared soon," he had said.
The traders claim that the removal of parking facility from inner circle would end up in decreased footfall of shoppers and they will be the one most affected.
"If you remove parking from inner circle specially on the days when the footfall is expected to rise, then the government is doing nothing but killing our sales which are already down," Atul Bhargava, President of New Delhi Traders Association told .
On the government's hand, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged the general public to attend the laser show instead of bursting crackers on Diwali.
"You will enjoy laser show with the rest of Delhi more than bursting crackers. Let us have a pollution-free Diwali this time," Kejriwal had said.
( With inputs from IANS )