The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to hand over an initial payment of ₹10,000 to the affected traders of Kidderpore’s Orphangunge Market. The civic body will also survey to segregate the shops that were fully gutted from the ones partially gutted, sources in the civic body told The Telegraph.
Hundreds of shops in the market were gutted in a fire early on Monday.
The traders were given application forms on Tuesday. They must submit the forms to get compensation.
On Wednesday, traders at the market were seen filling forms and preparing documents that must accompany the applications for compensation.
Officials from the civic body were present in the market to help the traders with the application process, sources said.
“We will first hand over ₹10,000 to the affected traders. Since we are aware of the parts of the market hit by the fire, it will be easier to identify the affected traders,” said a KMC official.
During a visit to the market on Monday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced ₹10,000 as an immediate relief to the affected traders.
“They have to run their families,” Mamata had said. The chief minister also announced compensation of ₹1 lakh for traders whose shops were destroyed, and ₹50,000 for those whose shops were partially damaged.
Sources in the KMC said owners of all shops, irrespective of the damage to their shops, will receive ₹10,000.
A thorough survey will be conducted after the initial relief amount is disbursed to determine the extent of damage and fix the final compensation amount.
A KMC official said there were a little over 1,300 shops in the market, according to a KMC survey conducted in 2022, soon after the district administration of South 24-Parganas handed the market over to the civic body. The Telegraph had earlier written that there were 700 shops in the market.
“I visited the market on Wednesday. The traders were preparing all the documents that they would submit. They sought time till Saturday to submit the applications,” said Debalina Biswas, the chairperson of Borough IX of KMC.
On Wednesday, traders were still retrieving products that escaped the fire.
Smoke was still emanating from portions of the market, and firefighters were engaged in cooling operations.
Ashok Kumar Singh, 42, who ran a grocery store, said: “This was my only source of income,” he said.
Jhantu Bagh, a vegetable vendor at Orphangunge Market, said, he had “filled up the compensation form”.
Bagh lost the entire stock of vegetables in the fire. “I had stock worth at least ₹20,000. Any help at this moment will lessen my troubles,” he said.
Many traders have lost important documents such as licenses, identity papers, and permits in the fire.