Cuttack, April 7: A meeting with the chief minister has made Malgodown traders, who have been battling against potential eviction for the past two years, optimistic.
The traders, threatened with eviction by the railway authorities, feel that state government will now intervene. The traders also feel that state government's intervention will prevent their eviction and help securing for them a rehabilitation package, the hopes of which were kindled by the railway minister's assurance a couple of weeks ago.
Members of the Cuttack Chamber of Commerce (CCC), an umbrella organisation of Malgodown traders, met chief minister Naveen Patnaik at his office last evening and submitted a memorandum, which sought his "intervention against their eviction".
"The chief minister assured us to take up the matter personally with the railway minister for an alternative to their eviction. We pin our hopes on him," CCC general secretary B.K. Mohanty told The Telegraph today.
Malgodown, the state's largest wholesale market for essential commodities, is spread over 25 acres. Eighty per cent of the land belongs to the East Coast Railway.
There are 1,500 merchants, including wholesale and sub-wholesalers who carry out business at the market. The railway had been issuing temporary licences, renewable every year, to run business at Malgodown since 1925.
However, the railway's decision to issue ultimatums to the traders in February 2015 to vacate the land had sparked a controversy. It said there would be no further renewal of licences from 2015-16. Members of the CCC had met railway minister Suresh Prabhu in Bubaneswar on March 20 and submitted a memorandum, which sought his "intervention and immediate instruction to stop eviction".
"The railway minister had assured us rehabilitation before eviction. But, the minister had questioned why the state government had not intervened in the matter for the traders' rehabilitation. So we appealed to the chief minister," Mohanty said.
In their memorandum, the traders also suggested "outright sale of plots of the occupants or to convert the temporary licences into permanent ones".
"Both would generate huge revenue for the railways," the traders reasoned.
"While accepting our memorandum, the chief minister immediately directed the senior official present to prepare the matter to be taken up by him with the railway minister," CCC joint general secretary Prasant Kumar Patra said.
Some of the traders had filed individual petitions in Orissa High Court seeking intervention against eviction notices issued to them. Of the 50 odd petitions, the high court has so far disposed of 30 with identical order.
The court had said that since the railways had land nearby, the authorities concerned should at least consider the case of the petitioner (a Malgodown trader) to rehabilitate him at a different place.
"Sudden eviction without alternative arrangement for relocation will seriously hit the chain of trade in essential commodities right to the village retail traders who are dependent on Malgodown," said Prafulla Kumar Chatoi, another joint general secretary of the CCC.
The traders had filed representations following directions of the high court. But the railway authorities have been issuing eviction notices to those who had not moved the court. CCC managing committee member Pawan Agarwal said: "Malgodown is the lifeline for more than 25,000 people, including traders, workers, labourers and transporters."
The British government had set up Malgodown in Cuttack after the great famine of 1866 as a precautionary measure to stock food grains with an inland dock facility at Taladanda canal connecting it with the Bay of Bengal in Paradip.
