Now, Forward Bloc targets Food Bazaar, Spencer's

The City of Joy’s cup of woes is brimming over, with Left Front constituent Forward Bloc today declaring a war on organised retail.

State Agriculture Minister and Forward Bloc leader Naren De today said organised retail outlets would have to close down in the state. “Fruit and vegetable retailers like Food Bazaar and Spencer’s will need an Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) licence to operate in the state. But Forward Bloc will not allow the government to issue APMC licences to them,” De said.

APMC licence is a must for any firm to procure fruit and vegetables directly from farmers. It is issued by the West Bengal Agriculture Marketing Board, which is controlled by the Forward Bloc.

Amid uncertainty over Metro Cash & Carry’s project in Kolkata, retail outlets like Spencer’s, Food Bazaar, and Reliance Retail have been doing business in West Bengal without an APMC licence. Spencer’s had applied for the licence in 2006 but has not received it yet.

Reliance Retail, on the other hand, has entered the state in an innovative arrangement with city-based Mahendra Jalan of Keventer Fresh, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Keventer Agro Ltd. Reliance itself is not selling fruit or vegetables at its three stores but has allowed Keventer Fresh to set up a shop within the shop, selling mostly imported fruit.

Forward Bloc is also upset with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s decision to bypass his ministers and ask the District Magistrate of South 24-Parganas to issue a licence to Metro Cash & Carry.

As a mark of protest, Forward Bloc leaders will abstain from going to the Writer’s Building from today, De said. He also threatened to withdraw support to the government if the CPI(M) stuck to its stand on issuing APMC licence to organised retailers.

The party said Metro was a retailer pretending to be a wholesaler, and that its entry would ruin small traders.