Traders of Downtown have decried continuous curbs in Old City for the past three days.
Restrictions were imposed in Downtown on Saturday to foil Lal Chowk chalo march called by joint resistance leadership against the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the summer capital.
Downtown traders are aghast as authorities for past three days placed tight curfew in various place across Downtown areas including Nowhatta, M R Gunj, Safa Kadal, Khanyar and Rainawari to foil the proposed march of separatist leadership towards martyr’s graveyard Eidgah.
The Downtown traders said that even when the curbs are lifted from all over Srinagar, “Downtown continues to face hardships due to the frequent curbs affecting their livelihood too.”
‘Caging the entire population of Downtown has seriously cast a shadow on economy and trade of the area which is considered the oldest business hub of Kashmir,” they said.
Chairman Shehar-e-Khass Traders Coordination Committee, Nazir Ahmad said that frequent restrictions have affected their business during the holy month of Ramadhan.
“During Ramadhan, we expect good sales in products like dates and other related products, but the continuous curbs has affected our trade badly” he said.
The traders’ body said that they had also met senior officers regarding the issue. “We told that that we face restrictions even on the normal days when there are no curbs elsewhere, they had assured to look into the matter but to no avail”, said Nazir Ahmed.
“We had also organized a dua Majlis on the martyrdom anniversary of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq yesterday which could not be held due to these curbs” he said.