Beopar Mandal opposes pvt fair

Solan, August 29

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The local Beopar Mandal has registered its protest against a seven-day commercial fair being organised by a group of private individuals at Thodo Ground every year in September.

Kushal Jethi, president of the Beopar Mandal, handed over a memorandum in this regard to Solan Municipal Corporation Mayor Usha Sharma last evening. He said the civic body should not give the permission to private individuals to hold a commercial fair by the name of ‘Himachal Utsav’.

“Readymade items like clothes, crockery, furniture, shoes etc are sold at the fair by traders from Delhi, Saharanpur, Roorkee, Ludhiana etc. They pay no tax to the state, but harm the prospects of the local traders,” Jethi said.

He added that they have no objection to the fair where cultural and sports activities are held or handicraft items are sold by the local people, but permitting traders to indulge in commercial sale of items would hit the small traders of the town.

Being the only ground in the town, children practice sports daily here.

A seven-day fair will keep the ground occupied for nearly two weeks as it takes several days to erect and remove fixtures.

The mandal, while requesting the mayor to give only the permission for a three-day cultural fair, said in case a seven-day fair was held on the ground they will shut their shops in protest and hand over the keys to the civic body.

The Beopar Mandal representatives rued that they lose a sizable business to online sales and emergence of shopping malls and such fairs further add to their loss.

They added that there is no check on migrants who converge during the fair and adversely hit their business while the state earns no revenue by way of GST or other tax.

The MC commissioner will also be approached over the issue, Jethi added.

Mayor Usha Sharma stated that they will look into a request received from the Beopar Mandal.