Cash crunch casts shadow on Kapal Mochan fair

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, November 14

The effect of currency crunch can be seen on the historical Kapal Mochan fair in Bilaspur as only six lakh pilgrims have come this year compared to 10 lakh last year.

The pilgrims took a holy dip in all three sacred sarovars — Kapal Mochan, Rin Mochan and Suraj Kund — on the occasion of Kartik Purnima at the stroke of midnight.

They took a bath in the ‘sarovars’ to attain ‘moksha’ and lit ‘diyas’ after taking the holy bath on the banks of the ‘sarovars’ as per tradition.

“About six lakh pilgrims came to the fair and took a bath in the holy ‘sarovars’. The fair went off peacefully and no untoward incident was reported,” said Naveen Ahuja, Bilaspur SDM and mela administrator.

Amritpal, a pilgrim from Bathinda district, said, “We have neither new currency nor valid old currency to spend. A number of people wanted to visit the fair, but could not come following lack of valid currency.”

Jagadhri celebrates another Diwali on the occasion of Kapal Mochan mela. Traders sell utensils worth crores as pilgrims buy utensils as a good omen. They failed to do good business this year.

“This mela is like second Diwali for those in the metal industry. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers do brisk business as all utensils in their godowns are sold,” said 60-year-old Ram Nath, a local trader.

“Sometimes supply falls short. For the first time in my life, the mela disappointed us. Only a few pilgrims visited us to buy utensils,” he further said.

Sources said the administration had allotted about 450 shops in the mela area, but some shopkeepers failed to earn the shop rent amount.

“Most pilgrims reached the ‘sarovars’, had a bath and returned to their vehicles without making any purchases from the fair,” said Ran Singh, a shopkeeper.