Calcutta, April 25: Urban development and municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya today welcomed Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s move to develop the Park Circus market jointly with Reliance.

But Naren Chatterjee, chairman of the Forward Bloc-controlled agriculture marketing board, offered support to develop crumbling markets to “prevent Reliance from making a backdoor entry into retail”.

Chatterjee will send his proposal to mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya tomorrow.

The Bloc and the CPM’s other Left Front partners — the RSP and the CPI — are opposing the Reliance bid to start farm products retailing. They want the front to discuss the issue in its May 7 meeting.

But Asok Bhattacharya made the government’s stand clear. “What’s wrong in Reliance bidding highest and get- ting the CMC job? Parkomat has come up through joint venture. City Centre in Salt Lake is another example. Many municipalities have welcomed private partnership for development. There are similar plans to revamp the seven-eight markets run by the Calcutta Improvement Trust.”

There are differences over Reliance’s entry into the farm products business but “it cannot be prevented from setting up malls and supermarkets while the front decides on the farm business”, he said.

“Indian companies can’t be treated like FDI (foreign direct investment).”

He rejected the marketing board’s proposal to hand over to it all haats (weekly village bazaars) and markets run by the civic and rural bodies. “This is absurd and illegal. Municipalities and panchayats run markets lawfully. The board’s jurisdiction ends with wholesale farm products markets,” Bhattacharya said.

The allies insisted that minister Asok Bhattacharya’s voice was not the CPM’s.