The impasse has lifted for the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s dream project — Banglar Mukh e-governance — with Calcutta High Court directing it to renew the licences of the 82 kiosk-owners for a fee of Rs 10,000. Earlier, the state government had directed the owners to pay Rs 40,000 as renewal fees in instalments, which they had refused to. In his verdict, Justice S.K. Mukherjee also directed the state to provide all the necessary information to the kiosk-owners within three weeks.

On Thursday, the West Bengal Kiosk-Owners’ Association moved a writ petition in the high court, alleging that the government had failed to keep its assurances of providing information service to its members for the portal Banglar Mukh. That apart, it alleged, the government had slapped on them a renewal fee of Rs 40,000 each. The kiosk-owners argued that it was impossible for them to pay such a large amount as their businesses were running at a loss, consequent to the government’s failure to keep them posted with information.

On behalf of the petitioners, Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Shaktinath Mukherjee told the court that the government’s demand was unfair, as it had admittedly failed to provide any service.

Government counsel Bikash Bhattacharya prayed for time to file an affidavit. Counsel on behalf of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), submitted that his client had supplied software for the e-governance project to the kiosks as the state government had failed to do so.

However, the kiosk-owners said 90 per cent of them would not be able to afford the Rs-10,000 renewal fee. “Most of us are already burdened with hefty loans,” a spokesperson said on their behalf.

Banglar Mukh was launched in January 2003, with Webel and TCS being the nodal agencies. The project hit a speedbreaker after the kiosk-owners alleged that the state’s failure to supply them with information was driving away customers.