A meeting in the Metro channel spells agony for the commuter. The November 12 edition of Metro had highlighted how a meeting opposite the cinema hall that gave the stretch its name helps political parties and unions get the maximum mileage with minimum effort. No police permission is required because none can be granted for a traffic-stopper meeting on a thoroughfare. So, there’s nothing official about the city centre being held to ransom by a handful. Traffic at the Esplanade crossing slows down dramatically on days when the Metro channel hosts a meeting.

Hundreds suffer, but who apart from the organisers benefit? Metro follows the money-and-mechanism trail to dig out some small-time beneficiaries from the traffic-choking meetings in Calcutta’s prime protest spot.

Decorators and sound arrangers

An average of eight meetings a month in the Metro channel keeps cash flowing into the kitty of Partho Decorators.

“Depending on the size of the stage and the expected turnout, we charge between Rs 4,500 and Rs 8,000 for the arrangements. Metro channel meetings are our staple,” says owner Partho Ray, sitting in his shop at 15D Keshab Chandra Street.

In Partho’s business, the returns are directly proportional to the level of political uncertainty in the state. “More meetings by rival parties and unions mean more contracts for us. Business has been good for us in the past couple of years because the political situation in Bengal has been bad,” he says.

Shops that provide audio equipment, too, earn good money when meetings are organised. The charges range between Rs 2,500 and Rs 4,000, depending on the number of loudspeakers, sound-boxes and the quality of the equipment.

DME Service, the company that supplied sound equipment for the SUCI meeting at the venue last Wednesday, charged Rs 2,000 for eight loudspeakers, two sound boxes and the services of a technician. “SUCI has a shoestring budget. But large meetings organised by the ruling party fetch good money,” says sound technician Samar Dutta.

Vendors

On the sidelines of the dais from where leaders spew rhetoric, a small economy thrives. Vendors Kallu Sau and Ganesh Pandit couldn’t be bothered about Metro channel becoming a chaos corridor each time the stage is set, chairs are laid out and a leader arrives with supporters to lay siege to the area.

For Kallu, who sells jhalmuri, a meeting means a large customer base and above-average earnings. “I can usually be found at the Esplanade bus stand but I shift to the Metro channel whenever there is a meeting. I earn Rs 200-Rs 250 in a couple of hours. Elsewhere, there is competition and I cannot hope to earn that much in such a short time,” he says.

Ganesh, who sells papad in the New Market area, still remembers the winter of 2006 when he earned Rs 4,000 in 26 days. That was when Mamata Banerjee was on an indefinite hunger strike against land acquisition for the now-aborted Nano project in Singur. He hasn’t earned that much in a month since.

“Not everybody is a crowdpuller like Didi. But I do manage to sell papad worth Rs 75-Rs 80 whenever there is a meeting in the Metro channel,” he says.

We have nothing against the Partho Rays and the Kallu Saus earning their livelihood. We only demand that the letter of the law be followed and the illegal meetings at Metro channel be shifted to the designated protest platforms of Shahid Minar and off the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Mayo Road. The Partho Rays and the Kallu Saus will not mind shifting there.

Illegal meetings

According to former high court judge Justice B.P. Banerjee, senior advocate Gitanath Ganguli, and the state government’s standing counsel, Subrata Mukhopadhyaya, the Metro channel meetings are “illegal”.

In its judgment banning bandhs, the Supreme Court had observed that “free movement” was the fundamental right of the citizen. It said that if some people curb this right by holding a meeting on a road, the gathering or the meeting should be deemed “illegal”.

The use of multiple loudspeakers at meetings is another violation of the law. The noise level during any meeting in the Metro channel is invariably higher than 90 decibels, which is illegal.

— Our Bureau