New Delhi [India], June 19 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said 'red-tapism is back', 'corruption is thriving' and Delhi's businesspersons are once again under the thumb of officials.

AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj has hit out at the BJP for turning the clock back on ease of business in the capital. 'From making trade licences deliberately complex to unleashing a fresh wave of 'Inspector Raj', the BJP is deliberately choking Delhi's traditional markets, already struggling in the age of e-commerce, with even plans to shift historic bazaars like Chandni Chowk out of the city.'

Criticising the BJP-led MCD for 'harassing' Delhi's businesspersons, AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj said, 'At a time when countries across the world are finding new ways to ease doing business and simplifying complex licensing systems through IT and computerisation, the BJP has done the exact opposite after forming its government in MCD. They have begun squeezing businesspeople the moment they assumed power.'

Pointing to the deliberate 'complexity' of trade licence procedures, he asserted, 'It's clear that the way trade licences are being made unnecessarily complicated, there is corruption hidden behind this complexity. Any process that is deliberately made difficult directly benefits corrupt officials, who exploit businesspersons through harassment and extortion. Making the licensing process more complex is nothing but a gateway to bribery.'

Highlighting how the system has been 'regressed', Saurabh Bharadwaj emphasised, 'What used to be a simple and streamlined process is now being damaged to bring back 'Inspector Raj' in Delhi. Officials will now start visiting shops again, demanding arbitrary bribes and threatening businesspersons.'

Exposing how 'businesspersons will be extorted under the new regime', he stated, 'Shopkeepers will now be intimidated with the threat that if they don't pay up, their shops can be sealed--because the officers have been given that power. This opens the door to rampant exploitation.'

Earlier, Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Thursday said that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was 'surprised' at the work BJP government has achieved in the first 100 days of its tenure in the national capital.

'Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who came to meet Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. There was a discussion about the services they provide through NGOs. We also discussed that CM Rekha Gupta completed that in 100 days... He was surprised that achieving this much work in 100 days was possible... He is amused to meet the chief minister of over 30 million people, a very significant figure when compared to the European population,' Sirsa said.

Blair met CM Rekha Gupta and Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa at the Delhi Secretariat here on Thursday. (ANI)