Srinagar, Dec 3: Whether the State Government allows it or not, as per government of India’s recent decision on Foreign Direct Investment in retail sector, Srinagar comes within the eligible zone.
 The minimum one-million population bar as per census 2011 set by central government to allow FDI in multi-brand retail in any city makes Srinagar city eligible to get foreign supermarkets.
 According to the census 2011, Srinagar city has a population of 12, 69,751. 
 Qamar Ali Akhoon, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) told Greater Kashmir: “As of now the state government has not taken any decision on this issue (to allow or not the FDI in retail sector in J&K).  But Government will talk to all the stakeholders before taking any decision in this regard.”
 The minister added: “It will be a collective decision, not the decision of government alone.”
 Meanwhile, traders across the valley have already expressed their resentment over the decision by the central government.
 The traders here said the arrival of mega stores will affect the business of small traders.
 About the cities that are eligible in the country majority falls in Maharashtra, which tops with nine cities qualifying to have foreign superstores like Walmart, followed by seven cities in Uttar Pradesh.
 Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Vasai-Virar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad make the total list in Maharashtra.
 Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have four cities each that qualify to have the FDI-backed stores. They are: Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat in Gujarat and Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
 Rajasthan has three cities namely Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota that quality to get the foreign retail chains.
 In Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam qualify while Punjab has only two cities viz. Ludhiana and A itsar.
 Here is the complete list of the cities, population wise, eligible for the FDI-backed multi-brand retail stores according to the census 2011: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Nagpur, Indore, Thane, Bhopal, Visakhapatnam, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Patna, Vadodara, Ghaziabad, Ludiana, Agra, Nashik, Faridabad, Meerut, Rajkot, Kalyan-Dombivali, Vasai-Virar, Varanasi, Srinagar, Aurangabad, Dhanbad, A itsar, Navi Mumbai, Allahabad, Ranchi, Howrah, Coimbatore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Vijayawada, Jodhpur, Madurai, Raipur and Kota.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 3 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 3 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 4 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST