Srinagar, Sept 3: With separatists appealing to shift the popular Sunday market here to Fridays, many traders engaged with Sunday Market business today put up their make shift stalls at posh Poloview and adjoining areas.
 The number of vendors was however lesser than what is usually seen on Sunday. “As many as 11,000 vendors are engaged in the Sunday Market business, who put up their stalls on footpaths from Residency Road up to Batmaloo area. However, today not even a hundred of them are present in the market,” said Sunday Market Union vice-president, Gulzar Ahmad Khan, who is associated with the market from the last 20 years.

 People at various stalls were seen bargaining on different items, like quilts, readymade clothes, footwear, curtains and so on. 

 While some vendors said they did a brisk business, most of them maintained that the customer rush was “not as good as witnessed on Sundays.” “The customer rush is below our expectations. There are many vendors who have not earned even a penny today,” said Ghulam Nabi, selling T-shirts at Residency Road.

 “It’s entirely different feeling today. On Sundays people usually feel free for shopping of non-essentials,” said Nissar Ahmad, another vendor.
 To recall, before the onset of ongoing agitation, the Sunday Market used to remain abuzz with activities, with people thronging it in large numbers. However, Sunday Market has hardly opened since the unrest began.
 Meanwhile, the underground general secretary of Hurriyat (G), Masarat Alam, on Wednesday asked Sunday Market traders to rename Sunday Market as Friday Market and do business on Fridays instead of Sundays.
 However, most of the traders said the market was open today only for the forthcoming Eid-ul-Fitr and “not because of any appeal.” “And then, since we have literally been sitting idle for past many Sundays because of shutdowns and curfews, we have make it today,” said Firdous Ahmad, a vendor selling curtains.

 The vendors lamented that they had suffered huge losses during past three months because of prevailing unrest. “We have suffered losses worth lakhs of rupees. Each vendor in the market has taken a loan of Rs 50,000 at 14 per cent interest from J&K Bank. We don’t know how to file the returns in the absence of earnings,” said Khan.

 As per vendors, they had not placed any fresh order for goods from outside for past three months now, which they otherwise would do on weekly basis. “In fact most of our goods are yet to be sold. So there is no question of placing new orders,” they said. 

Lastupdate on : Fri, 3 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 3 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST