Centre plays hard for Big Retail

NEW DELHI: With several states witnessing violent protests by local traders against organised retail chains like Reliance Fresh, a worried Centre has reached out to the state governments seeking adequate security at the outlets as well as action against “vested” interests who are harming “legitimate business interests”.

Exhorting the states to buck the trend of mob fury targeted at organised retail business as well as incidents of people taking law into their own hands to mete out instant punishment to law breakers, the Centre, at the DGP/IGPs conference held here earlier this month, advised police chiefs to discourage unlawful assemblies so as to prevent the building up of mobs. Also, the states were told to take necessary action under the law against “vested” interests who may have “incited” mobs, as a deterrent.

Reliance Fresh, an organised retail chain owned by the Mukesh Ambani group, has been forced to shut or scale down operations in states like UP, Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala after angry mobs, allegedly incited by neighbourhood traders and vendors, resorted to violence and vandalised several outlets.

Wal-Mart, which is in a tie-up with Bharti and hopes to begin retail operations by mid-2008, is already facing calls of ‘Quit India’. Ironically, the state governments have chosen to either remain mute spectators or have issued winding-up instructions , like in the case of UP, for Reliance Fresh outlets in the state in the “interest of law and order”.

The Union home ministry, however, does not wish to remain passive, considering that such apathy of the state governments is hurting legitimate business interests of those who have entered the organised retail market with all the due government clearances.

“People themselves go to these chains to shop, which essentially means that there is no popular sentiment against organised retail... so, it becomes the duty of the state government to safeguard the interest of such retail business and ensure that their operations are not hurt by a few vested interests who may be organising mob fury to force their closure,” a senior MHA official pointed out.

At the DGP/IGPs meet, the MHA discussed need for states to ensure a secure and trouble-free business for retail chains by checking mob activity outside the outlets. The discussion was general in nature, even covering cases where mobs have tried to take law into their own hands and meted out instant justice through physical attack rather than handing over the accused to the police.