The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has withdrawn the previous Delhi government’s consent to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail in the national capital.
In a letter to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in the first week of January, Delhi’s industries commissioner withdrew the government’s consent to FDI.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, however, clarified that he was not against FDI and would take a decision only after meeting the city’s traders’ unions and industrialists.
“I am not against FDI. This is to be decided on a sector-to-sector basis. FDI in multi-brand retail gives us a variety of products but the worldwide experience shows FDI has led to job loss. There is a huge unemployment problem in Delhi and we do not want to increase it further,” he said.
Raising questions on the former government’s decision, he said: “I personally feel that the entire retail sector’s consent was not taken in this decision.”
He claimed that the retail sector could improve without FDI if the governments thought about it.
“If we give proper advantage to the people, we can extend the retail sector in a large way,” he said.
No more janata darbars
Following mismanagement in his maiden Janata Darbar, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday permanently scrapped the concept of darbars for addressing public grievance.
He, however, said the government would soon launch a helpline, a help desk and other systems to redress public grievance. He also maintained that he would continue meeting people for three hours every weekend in separate constituencies.