Small shopkeepers in MP to get one-time shop licence

The Madhya Pradesh government Wednesday announced that it would start issuing one-time shop establishment licences to small shopkeepers, who will not have to renew them. At present, the shop establishment licences are issued either for three years or five years. But once the stipulated period gets over, the shopkeepers need to renew them.

"The MP government has amended the gumasta (Shop and Establishment Act) licence norm. Henceforth, small shopkeepers don't need to renew their licence as they will be issued a one-time licence," Labour Minister Mahendra Singh Sisodiya told reporters here. According to him, the new norm would come into force within a week.

"The licence fees would remain the same. This would benefit about 10 lakh small shopkeepers in the state. The shopkeepers will have to get a new licence only if they change the nature of their business," he said. This has been a long-pending demand of the shopkeepers in the state, he said.

Responding to a question on the continuation of the Sambal Yojana launched by the erstwhile BJP government, the minister said, "We will soon come up with the amendment in Sambal Yojana. Its name would be changed and work is underway to improve the scheme." Under Sambal Yojana, the labourers and poor are getting electricity on flat Rs 200 per month among other benefits..