CAFÉ SPACE LEASE RENEWAL PROCESS ON, SAYS LDA

LUCKNOW: The sprawling space in Gomtinagar from which the Sheroes Café operates falls under domain of Lucknow Development Authority’s (LDA) Smarak Samiti.

The samiti was formed to look after various memorials and parks built by the BSP government. During the previous Samajwadi Party government, the samiti had leased out the Sheroes Café to the women and child development department for two years.

The department, in turn, handed over the space to the acid attack survivors to run café for an annual rent of Rs 10,000. It was former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s initiative to rehabilitate the survivors.

The lease ended in March this year and the department has applied for renewal of the lease for five years.

“The renewal process is on. Due to some technical flaw it has been sent back to the women and child development department for rectification. This renewal will be for five years,” said MP Singh, LDA secretary.

“We are only concerned with the women and child development department to whom we have leased out the space. It was their decision to hand over the space to acid attack survivors for running the Sheroes Café,” said Abhinav Singh, Smarak Samiti officer.

The samiti has a separate workforce to look after memorials constructed during the BSP regime.