As many as 80 shops were destroyed, affecting over 200 families and leading to a loss worth crores
Head in his hands, Shiv Kumar, 52, ponders about where his next meal will come from. The shops where he had been working as a packaging person for the last over 30 years were gutted in a major fire that broke out in the Katra Dhuliya market of Chandni Chowk, late on Monday night. As many as 80 shops were destroyed, affecting over 200 families and leading to a loss worth crores.
"I have been working here since I was 15. I used come here with my father, who did the same work. I do not know any other work," says Kumar, who gets Rs 30 for every pack of 100 suits. Packaging suits in various shops of the wholesale market, he makes Rs 250-300 per day. "Every such market already has a packaging person. It is not that easy to find work elsewhere," he rues.
This is not the only tragedy that Kumar had to face this year. In February, he lost his 27-year-old son to blood cancer. His other son has a private job and earns Rs 8,000 a month. The family lives in a rented apartment in Sadar Bazar. Kumar used to walk to work, a distance of 3km, daily.
Dinesh Jain, whose shop was completed destroyed in the fire, says: "This was a 112-year-old shop, established by my great great grandfather. Me and my brother are the fifth generation to be working here. Our families depend on this business. " On the day of the incident, he had reached his home in Kingsway Camp at 8.15 pm. He recieved the call regarding the disaster at 9.32 pm.Shiv Balak Singh, the Katra Dhuliya lane watchman in his 50s, spent the entire Monday night dialing the shopkeepers. He spent Tuesday warning the people to stay away from the smouldering debris.
"There is no shop, where will you deliver? Go away," he tells a courier guy.Situated in the heart of the market area, the Katra Dhuliya market is just a few meters from the Chandni Chowk Metro station. Built in 1893, this is one of the oldest marts in the area. It is also the spot where a home-made bomb was dropped on the convoy of Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, in 1912. The incident had become popular as Delhi-Lahore conspiracy and had led to the execution of three Indian revolutionaries.
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