MUMBAI: Around 50 shop owners in Link Square Mall, Bandra West, gathered outside the mall on Monday, demanding the immediate commencement of repair work. Fifteen months after the mall was gutted in a fire on April 29 last year, there is no sign of repairs, leaving the shop owners with mounting debts and uncertainty over the future of their businesses.
“Getting a shop was something we had looked forward to for our livelihood and future. We thought it would support it when we were no longer able to work. Now not only my present but my future has also been affected.
Krishna Tamang, owner of the restaurant China Gate, who owned the third and fourth floors of the mall, alleged that an insurance claim of around ₹ 15 crore had not yet been cleared.
Hattikati said she had sold whatever gold she had, exhausted her savings, and was now left with resources that would last only for another couple of months. “After that, I don’t know how I will repay the loan,” she said.
He claimed that pressure from Siddique was delaying the process, and alleged that the administrator appointed by the court was in the process of reappointing people whom shopkeepers had previously complained against, which had led to the dissolution of the earlier committee.
Siddique denied all the allegations. “If my father developed it some two decades ago, how can I be held responsible? My family also has shops there. Why would I want to stop it from opening?
“This is a small group of shopkeepers who are creating this mischief,” he said. Siddique also alleged that some shopkeepers were using his name to “gain traction”.
