KOLKATA: Chastened by the widespread outrage among traders—who kept their shutters down despite her brandishing a stick, making Day One of the strike called by central trade unions a partial success—chief minister Mamata Banerjee decided to hand out carrots to the few who answered her call and kept their shops open on Wednesday.
Sources said Mamata asked mayor Sovon Chatterjee to work out an incentive to reward shop-owners who stayed open so that it encourages others to follow suit the next time. The decision was taken on the spur of the moment during an inspection of the city the CM undertook with the mayor in the early afternoon.
Mamata was initially taken aback at the sight of downed shutters in the wholesale belt of Burrabazar and Posta, but was relieved to see the vegetable market in Sealdah open.
Sources said the incentive idea struck her when she realized that cancelling the trade licences of those who stayed shut is not an option: the state will have to punish about 85% shopkeepers in the city then.
"I thank everyone who has opened their shop," Mamata said. "More shops are expected to open in the next half of the day. As for those that stayed shut, the high court has issued an order and the law will take its course."
Chatterjee said: "We are making a list of shops that were open. We will reward them." But officials in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's licence department said there is no such rule and implementing the reward scheme will be difficult.
Mamata's decision to discuss the matter only with Forum of Traders' Organization (West Bengal) general secretary Rabindranath Koley boomeranged as other federations were aggrieved and did all they could to foil the government's efforts to keep shops open.
"Traders have shown politicians that they will not be scared into submission," said Tarak Trivedi of the Federation of Trade Organization that claims 50 lakh businessmen as members. "Treat us with respect and we will extend a helping hand."
On Tuesday, it was Koley who had announced the decision to take "uncooperative" traders to task. On Wednesday, he did the task of mollifying.
He said the CM is trying out various measures to lure traders away from the culture of staying at home during strikes. "In Kankurgachi, VIP, New Market, Gariahat, Lake Market and elsewhere, 50% shops were open," Koley said. "That is a long way from the scenes in the past when everything would be shut. The trading community is timid and needs to be encouraged to defy political strikes."
Timidity was, however, not the trait traders displayed when they defied the CM's threat of licence cancellation. "Had she called all the trade organizations and appealed to us to stay open, an overwhelming majority of shop-owners would have complied," said Atmaram Kajaria, president of the Federation of West Bengal Trade Association that claims to represent two crore traders in the state. "But by issuing a threat that is impractical and impossible to carry out, the CM suffered a loss of face that she could have easily avoided."
Though all trade unions, barring Citu, have decided to continue with the strike on Thursday, trade bodies said the scene will be different in Kolkata and most shops will open for business.
Trade unions' strike: Stick backfires, Mamata Banerjee offers carrot to traders
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Trade unions' strike: Stick backfires, Mamata Banerjee offers carrot to traders
