Traders in Srinagar seek full opening of markets

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 6

Even as the city markets have been open on a rotation basis for more than two weeks now, shopkeepers are complaining of low sales. The traders are batting for full opening of shops as they say the markets are mostly ‘empty’.

“Customers hardly come and sales are terribly low. While the Covid threat is keeping the customers away, at the same time people have no buying power. There is financial crunch. At a time when businesses are down and when people have lost jobs or have to undergo pay cuts, we are not expecting to do better business in the near future. However, we can only urge the government to open the markets fully. The customers hardly come and markets are mostly empty. Therefore, why should markets open only on a rotation basis?” Kashmir Trade Alliance (KTA) president Aijaz Shahdhar told The Tribune.

The city markets had reopened on a rotation basis on August 17 due to the Covid pandemic. Earlier, the markets had opened on a rotation basis after 85 days of the Covid lockdown on June 13. However, the lockdown in the Valley was reimposed on July 13 after a spike in the Covid positive cases.

Sajad Ahmad, a cloth trader, said people were mostly buying essentials.”At this time of the year and during the summer season, women’s suits used to sell like hot cakes. Now, women mostly stay indoors and even marriages have been cancelled. Why will they buy extra clothes? We are yet to sell the stocks of last year and we have never seen this kind of slump in the markets,” he said.