Henna artists sit pretty in markets

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 16

While the Municipal Corporation (MC) has mandated that all vendors applying mehndi will put up stalls at community centres, they continue to operate from markets and other open spaces ahead of Karva Chauth.

“People visit markets for shopping and women also get henna applied from vendors there. Why would someone go to a community centre? We do not know where henna stalls have come up at community centres,” said Radhika, who visited the Sector 38 market.

Interestingly, a marriage function was on at the Sector 19 community centre and vendors squatted in the market area.

The MC earns about Rs 3-4 lakh from issuing slips to these vendors every year. However, this time a very few vendors sat at community centres, the designated places for putting up henna stalls.

“I think only about 10-15 vendors were issued slips at the Sector 15 community centre,” said an MC official.