After 18 years of waiting, hawkers who once squatted near Baiskahi Island will have a concrete roof over their heads — AMP Vaisaakkhi mall. The keys to their shops were handed over on March 15 at a ceremony outside the mall, hours before the dates of the elections were announced and the model code of conduct came into force.
“We are extremely relieved at getting the keys,” said Mrityunjoy Singha, a newspaper recycler ???? at the market and past president of Baisakhi Bajar Committee. This is the association formed by the 190 hawkers in question. “Many of the original shop owners have died waiting to move into the mall, but we’re glad this day has finally come.”
Backstory
Some of these vendors here have been selling wares near Baisakhi Island since 1979. Then in 2008, the then-Left Front-led Bidhannagar Municipality entered a public-private joint venture with AMP Universal Realty to build AMP Vaisaakkhi mall at the space they used to occupy. The hawkers were moved into a make-shift market behind their existing space and were promised stalls in the lower floors of the mall once it was built.
“We paid the civic body between Rs 10,000 and 20,000 for mall space. The mall opened in 2014, but we weren’t allowed in. We had allotment letters but couldn’t move in without possession certificates that the authorities denied us,” says Atanu Giri, who sells poultry. “For this, we pleaded with councillor Anita Mondal, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation mayor Krishna Chakraborty, Calcutta Municipal Corporation mayor Firhad Hakim, MLA Sujit Bose, Trinamul state vice president Jay Prakash Majumdar, and even the chief minister. Our papers were verified by the civic body and police multiple times, too, but we were kept waiting.”
In the meantime, the makeshift market, that was supposed to house the vendors for a matter of months, deteriorated beyond repair. The gates rusted away, pillars hung by ropes, rainwater collected in puddles and cats and dogs walked in and out at will. Storms and accidents brought the tin roof crashing on shoppers and shopkeepers alike, including a serious incident when vendors fell on their bnotis (blades used to cut fish).
The reason for the delay seems to administrative. Mayor Chakraborty says the previous civic body had left the paperwork in a mess. “And in the bargain, people suffered. We are happy that the vendors this space was built for are finally moving in,” she said after the key handover.
Vijay Purohit of AMP Universal Realty, who is also the mall’s building manager, says they were ready with the keys, but the Corporation wasn’t taking them. “Our job was to give them the keys, which they would hand over to vendors, but neither was the civic body accepting the keys nor clearing their dues payable to us. But we are happy that matters have been sorted out. These shops will bring in more footfall to the mall,” he said.
Loose ends
The hawkers are ready to let bygones be bygones. “We don’t care how or what happened as long as we can move in at the earliest,” says joint secretary Debasish Paul, who runs a dashakarma outlet. “We have the keys and are waiting for the possession certificate. We shall hold meetings with our vendors and decide on an auspicious date to make the shift.”
The hawkers will get parts of three floors — basement 1, ground floor and first floor. The lowest floor is for vegetables, fish, poultry and the like, while the upper floors have individual shops with shutters. These will have groceries, salons, tailors etc. Lifts are available, and there are three entrances for shoppers, plus an extra one for vendors to bring in wares. There is no AC but the space is well-ventilated, along with CCTV and fire-fighting measures. Incidentally, a fire had broken out in a basement under this market in 2019.
Purohit says the hawkers will need possession certificates to get electric connections, and mayor Chakraborty says they are working to expedite the same.
In the meantime, new hawkers have set up stalls in the space between the mall and the makeshift market. Chakraborty said she would look into the matter.
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