When MCD seals, resellers hide

Disturbed by the ongoing shop—sealing activity by the Municipal Corporation

of Delhi (MCD), the reseller community in the affected areas is confused on how

to carry out their business. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had on

February 16, 2006 directed the MCD to take immediate steps in order to seal

residential premises being used for commercial purposes in the national capital

region.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And some small

resellers are now operating their business in a low-profile fashion to escape

the scrutiny of the authorities.

"We do not know when these MCD officials will come and

seal our shops. So we have closed our offices for the time being, but still we

continue to operate in a different way," informed a reseller for IT

peripherals from the Pitampura area on condition of anonymity. He revealed that

he opens his shop for about two to three hours daily, whenever he has a customer

or a distributor coming for a visit.

Similarly, there are a lot of resellers who are opening their

shops for two or three hours in a day and close it as soon as they sense that

MCD officials are approaching.

In most of the areas like Pitampura, Najafgarh and Rohini,

there are many small resellers who have taken to operating in such masked

manner.

On the other hand, long-timers in the IT channel believe that

this issue of sealing shops being operated from residential areas will have

mixed repercussions for the overall industry. "I agree that this is

creating a bad situation for us all in the industry. However, at the same time

this will weed out players who are not involved in serious business activity. By

the time this process is over, we will have only serious and reliable players

left in the market," informed a prominent channel partner from New Delhi.

ZIA ASKARI