At the fair site, pavilions being brought down

But all in vain.

The same men who built the pandals pulled down the pavilions at noon after the Calcutta High Court judgment. The workers mostly hailed from Nadia and North 24 Parganas.

“It is hard to undo what we have done over the last 11 days. We worked nine hours a day to prepare the ground for the fair. And we have not been paid yet. We were supposed to receive the payments on the inauguration day,” said Banik Das, a worker from Bonagon. The minimum wage a worker is entitled to is Rs 80. About 80 per cent have not received any pay since the construction began on January 17.

“We have families to support. We are shocked at the judgment. In this situation we cannot even ask our contractors to pay us. We have been left in the lurch,” said Vasant Das of Bagula, working with Kumar Roy of Add World. Das, like hundreds of others, has received no payment till date.

“I really do not know what the future holds. I have invested Rs 3 lakh in this ground. About 65 labourers have worked with me to build six stalls of different Delhi-based publishers. After today’s decision, my clients have agreed to take the responsibility of only 20 per cent of the total cost. Will the Guild take responsibility of the rest?” questioned Kumar Roy,a contractor for the Kolkata book fair for the last 10 years.

“The Guild should have learnt from previous year’s experience. Most of the contractors have not received full payment from the Guild yet,” added Kumar Roy.

The condition of Subhendu Roy is even worse. He is the owner of Stimulate Company, which designs the foreign publishing houses every year in the fair. He does not know if he will receive Rs 7 lakh he had already spent in designing the theme pavilion based on USA.

“Everything, including the Statue of Liberty, stands ready. We were planning to wrap up the work tonight before the inauguration ceremony that was supposed to take place tomorrow. But how will I pay my workers now?” said the young man. The High Court had passed the judgment around 11.30 in the morning.

But throughout the day none of the Guild representatives were seen in the Park Circus Maidan.