The Times of India  10.08.2010

LMC to sell Mohan Market shops

LUCKNOW: Mohan Market, one of the city's oldest markets in Aminabad, would soon be up for sale. The state government has given a formal nod to Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) proposal to sell the shops, which were once allotted to refugees after the partition in 1947.

Municipal commissioner Shailesh Kumar Singh confirmed that the proposal has been cleared and would be put up before a high-level committee headed by divisional commissioner to decide upon the rates on which the shops would be sold. The committee would have district magistrate, LDA vice-chairman, chief town planner and the municipal commissioner to look into the issue.

Municipal sources said that the shops would be sold to the allottee at the prevailing market rates. Given their location, each shop would have its price notched at huge sums. Market analysts claimed that the land price in Aminabad could well be in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 per sq ft. That ways, even a small shop of say 10 ft by 10 ft would be priced in the range of Rs 25 lakh to Rs 35 lakh.

Now compare this with what the 327 odd shops, aligned in three lanes, presently fetch for the municipal corporation. Informed sources said the shops which are abuzz with shoppers at any given time of the day, pay between Rs 30 to Rs 40 per month as rent towards LMC. Or, Rs 360 per year. The three lanes together therefore, fetch the municipal corporation around Rs 1.5 lakh per year.

Selling these shops, not surprisingly, would make LMC richer considerably. Going by even the most conservative estimate, the `deal' could well fetch LMC around Rs 100 crore.

But it is the question of rate, which the LMC would be charging from shopkeepers who are in possession of shops presently, that may become a cone of contention. The move, sources said, would result in a vigorous round of negotiations between the shopkeepers and the administration. Sources said that the corporation would surely be treading cautiously while it decides on the rate. For one, the municipal corporation may not be able to evict the shopkeepers who have been occupying these shops for nearly half-a-century now.

A senior official in the rent department said that of the 327 shops, nearly 200 have either been sublet or have the allotment mutated in someone else's name. "So, the corporation would first be identifying the present occupancy of the shops before a rate is decided,'' said a senior official.

The sale may add to the municipal purse, but the move is sure to stir up a hornet's nest as the executive committee comprises corporators as well as the municipal house. The two bodies have consistently been opposing any sale of municipal properties to fill the ever-depleting coffers of municipal corporation. In fact, the former has been questioning the role of government officials in deciding the fate of municipal properties. More so, when a raging discussion on overspending by LMC is already underway.