kolkata shopowners of the gutted firpos market appealed to chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee to prevail upon the civic body and the fire department and allow them to repair the place at their own cost congress leader somen mitra accompanied the shopowners associationbhattacharjee though was noncommittal and said he would talk to urban development minister asok bhattacharya the sprawling market a prime plot on chowringee road was gutted in a devastating fire on the night of april 23 the market was built by restructuring firpos restaurant a landmark of the city in the 1950sthe association leaders however told the chief minister that the landlord had promised cooperation in a letter to the police commissioner and offered to repair the building the shopowners are worried that they would lose possession of their respective original positions if major changes are effectedthe government should consider that we have already lost much of our livelihood now if repair work is stopped it will ruin our lives as well as that of our employees said association leader md humayunboth city mayor subrata mukherjee and fire services minister pratim chatterjee would not allow reconstruction without making major structural changes the former contended that a major part of the market was built and extended illegally making itself highly unsafemukherjee threatened to arrest the landlord and promoter rajen poddar who he alleged had flouted rules when the left front was in power at the cmc he even claimed that the fire was not accidentalchatterjee also stressed that the absence of inbuilt fire prevention and evacuation measures and clogging narrow passages with highly inflammable materials made it extremely difficult for the firemen to douse the flames the state government has already ordered an enquirythe shopowners criticised the cmc for holding a holierthanthou attitude regarding illegal construction who allowed the building of a shop on the narrow space between our market and the adjoining leslie house had it been open fire operators would have been able to access the source of fire before it engulfed the next building said onemetro protest on suicides members of the metro rail workers congress gheraoed the metro rail bhawan on tuesday protesting against the railways failure to check suicides on metro trackit is time to extensively propagate that metro is our pride not a place for committing suicide union president madan mitra said the metro authorities must find out what suicidal psychology led people to chose the underground tracks there must be a reason why dont people commit suicide at nicco park or on the circular railway track there are enough secluded places for committing suicidebesides close vigil and monitoring through closecircuit television mitra said the authorities must induce a strong sense of pride among metro commuters station officials must ensure that one does not get isolated metro should run a campaign at stationsthe workers also raised issues of passenger amenities and services including drinking water airconditioning and toilets for women and childrenmitra also demanded an inquiry into irregularities in issuing of railway passes and