The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the implementing agency of East-West Metro, will take a fortnight to identify displaced residents and traders of Bowbazar’s Madan Dutta Lane who will be eligible for compensation, an official of the agency said on Tuesday.
The residents and the traders had to leave their addresses on Friday after cracks appeared in the buildings following subsidence triggered by Metro tunneling work.
The KMRC official said that only those residents who have to stay away from their homes for more than a month would be eligible for compensation.
As for the affected traders, those who have to keep their shops closed for 12 days or more will be eligible for compensation, said an official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
“It was decided at a meeting in Nabanna on Saturday that not everyone would be eligible for compensation,” the KMRC official said.
“We will be in a position to tell who all will be eligible for compensation in about a fortnight,” the official said. “This is only for those who were shifted after last Friday’s incident.” Among those who were displaced after the 2019 disaster, 200 residents were paid Rs 5 lakh each as compensation. “The 2019 chapter is closed. We have paid compensation to all eligible people,” the KMRC official said.
Among those who were displaced in May, some shopkeepers have received compensation but the residents are yet to get any, he said.
A statement issued by Nabanna on Saturday said a total of 180 people had to be shifted from the affected buildings following Friday’s subsidence. Among them are some artisans and workers, the statement said.
Displaced residents and traders who want to claim compensation have to collect a form from a camp set up at the office of the local councillor, Biswarup Dey. “Till Wednesday afternoon, 77 forms were distributed. Families as well shop owners collected the form,” Dey said.
Residents who will be eligible for the compensation will get Rs 5 lakh, according to the statement. Traders whose shops measure up to 100sq ft will get Rs 1.5 lakh and the owners of shops bigger than 100sq ft will get Rs 5 lakh.
“The compensation will be handed according to the formula adopted after the disasters in 2019 and in May this year. Earlier, traders with shops measuring up to 100sq ft got Rs 1 lakh. That amount has been increased to Rs 1.5 lakh,” said the KMC official.
“There is another change. Earlier, the traders who had to keep their shops close for at least 15 days were eligible for compensation. That period has been brought down to 12 days,” the official said.
Officials of the state government, KMC and the KMRC met at Nabanna on Saturday to discuss these issues. The chief minister joined the meeting virtually.