Shopkeepers at the temporary Baisakhi Bazar in Salt Lake are all smiles. They see light and hope at the end of a long tunnel of despair. The shop owners, who had applied for shops at the adjacent AMP Baisakhi Mall, way back in 2006, have been handed over the keys of their shops.
Many of the shop and open space owners were happy that they would now be able to move into their shops, thanks to the efforts of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
A source, privy to the recent developments, said the corporation Mayor, Krishna Chakraborty had been pursuing the case. She recently interacted with the urban development minister, Firhad Hakim and local MLA and fire minister Sujit Bose on the issue, paving the way for the handovers.
Ten such shopkeepers were handed over the keys of their shops by the minister and the rest out of 190 were distributed later.
Minister Sujit Bose, said: “When the mall was started, the CPI-M was in power. We had a meeting at the BMC, where the mall owner was also called. He assured all cooperation to us regarding the handover. All the 190 names have been verified by the police. Now that the shopkeepers will be getting their shops inside the mall, I request all of them to move out of their present location and handover the land to the government.”
BMC Mayor Krishna Chakraborty, said: “The main aim of the AMP Baisakhi Mall was to rehabilitate the shopkeepers, who had been doing business in the open, in makeshift shops. BMC MMiC Tulsi Sinha Roy had been looking after the legal aspects of the case and keeping the papers ready.”
Trinamul Congress spokesperson, Jai Prakash Majumdar, one of the leaders pursuing the case, said: “The planning to relocate the shop owners to the mall had started way back in 2006. People, who had applied for shops had paid Rs 20,000 and the ones who applied for the open spaces (chatal), paid Rs 10,000. The shopkeepers’ body had even met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her Kalighat residence to plead for their case.”
Debashish Pal, joint secretary of AG Bazar Committee, the shopkeepers’ body fighting for the case, said: “Different shop sizes have been allotted to the shop owners based on their profession. We have been doing business till now putting our lives in danger. We were supposed to get our shops within 18 months of the completion of the mall, but it took so long.”
Another shop owner, Dharam Nath Shah, who sells fruits at the market and one of the beneficiaries, said: “I was one of the initial 35 shopkeepers who had applied for the shops. I never lost hope; it was getting delayed but I always believed that someday this will come through.”