New Delhi: The CBD Ground in east Delhi’s Karkardooma hosted its first protest Monday after being declared a site where people can hold demonstrations.Police said no permission was given for Monday’s protest by the LPG Distributors Association (India). Its national president, BS Sharma, said the protest was organised to demand an immediate increase of Rs 75 for distributors’ commission and withdrawal of the order making PNG connections mandatory.Sharma claimed that the association had paid Rs 95,427 as the venue booking charge to DDA. They cleaned the place and pitched a tent, after which police denied permission. About 10,000 distributors from across India came to the protest, the association said. The booking receipt shared by Sharma listed the meeting’s purpose as a “social gathering”.There was no response from DDA on the matter.In a letter to the organiser, Delhi Police wrote that “your dharna/demonstration proposed at CBD Ground, Shahdara, Delhi, on Oct 26 cannot be permitted in view of non-allotment of specific land on CBD Ground by DDA, despite a letter to DDA for allotment, identification of land for holding protest in CBD Ground”.“In the absence of the specific land… necessary required infrastructure has not been developed so far,” the letter read.Recently, Jantar Mantar was denotified as a protest site and MHA gave three venues as options for demonstration sites. These are Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi, Burari Ground and CBD Ground.
