Srinagar, July 17: Getting a half-day breather after about two-weeks’ running shutdowns and curfews, markets in the summer capital Saturday remained abuzz with business activity with people thronging shops to buy items of need.
 Business establishments, shops, offices, banks and educational institutions were opened across the Valley, after separatists on Friday asked people to resume normal activities till 2 PM on Saturday.
 “I have stepped out of my house nearly after two weeks. I am here to buy food and other essential items,” said Tasleem Jan, a shopper at a general store at Regal Chowk, here.
 Shopkeepers and general store merchants could be seen busy selling goods. “The customer rush is tremendous today. We have received several hundreds customers since morning,” said Mehmood Ahmad, proprietor Jaan General Store at Regal Chowk here.
 “Over 300 customers visited us till 1:30 PM only,” said Nasir Hamid Khan, managing partner, Pick-n-Choose, Residency Road, here.
 Chemist shops, petrol pumps, vegetable and mutton sellers witnessed huge rush of people. Both public and private transport plied normally and traffic jams were also witnessed on many roads due to heavy rush.
 Hundreds of people could be seen standing in long queues waiting for their turn to withdraw money from the ATMs and branch offices of various banks. 
 “The J&K Bank ATMs today registered more than 50,000 transactions and disbursed over Rs 19 crore in Kashmir,” a senior official of the Bank said, adding that the highest amount (above Rs 35 lakh) was disbursed through an ATM at Bijbihara marking around 1,000 transactions.
 Meanwhile, many consumers complained of shortage of items in the market. “I had to purchase some necessary items, but I could not find them all in the market,” said Ali Muhammad Khan of Bemina.
 To this, the shopkeepers said they were running short of supplies, as they could not replenish their stocks in the wake of the turbulent situations prevailing in the Valley for past one month now.  
 “We could not provide all the products to customers, for we are currently running short of many products, like milk, soaps and shampoos, etc, for these days the supply of goods is not regular,” said Khan.
 “Since the main wholesale markets were closed for past several days, we could not replenish our stocks. We shall buy fresh stocks today itself,” said Ghulam Rasool, a shopkeeper at Nohwatta.
 Many people said that they were apprehensive that things may go from bad to worse in the coming days and the essential goods may disappear from the markets.
 “Already the separatists have announced a new protest calendar for another week. You never know when the situation will be out of control again and for how long this agitation will last. So we are trying our best to get all the necessary items,” said Suhail Ahmad, a shopper.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST