CM promises new shops

CM promises new shops
BENGALURU


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“The compensa tion will not get back our furniture,” shouted a furious shop keeper along with several others who lost their livelihood in the Jayanagar shopping complex fire mishap, even as the Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was announcing Rs 50,000 cash for the shopkeepers whose shops were burned.

On Sunday evening, when the Chief Minister visited the shopping complex which serves as one stop point for thousands of citizens residing in Bengaluru South, the shop keepers could not hold their emotions. Some fell at the CM’s feet and some pleaded him to provide an alternative livelihood and the police had a tough time in cordoning the shop keepers off the Chief Minister and the other ministers who accompanied him.

While addressing the shop keepers, the Chief Minister assured a financial help of Rs 50,000 to the victims and directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike authorities to build a new shopping complex at the disaster site.

“The government will sanction up to Rs 2.5 crore for the new complex. The shops will be built exclusively for the shopkeepers who lost their shops and there is no need to pay a single rupee to anyone to reclaim the shop. The BBMP will provide an alternative space for short period for the shop keepers to continue with their business,” the Chief Minister said.

However, the compensation offered by the CM did not please the shop keepers.

M. Jayaram, treasure of Jayanagar Varthakara Sangha, said that the government should help in the confidence building as most of the shopkeepers have virtually on the streets.

Meanwhile, the BBMP commissioner S. Subramanya told this newspaper that the engineers will conduct a fitness test of the building.

“The test will be carried out in front of the traders.

We need to check the metal bars on the beam above the shopping complex and if the structure is fit, we will restore the same building within two weeks. But if the tests prove negative, we have no choice but bring the building down,” Mr Subramanya said.