TURA: The festive mood has finally set in as Tura witnessed chaotic scenes and traffic jams on Friday with thousands of citizens flocked to the main market for Christmas shopping.
For the hundreds of traders dealing in clothes and shoes, it was a blessing after what was a dull season till the other day. Many traders, particularly those running stores in the Tura super market, there was apprehension about sale of their products.
“We had already ordered large quantities of clothes and shoes but there was hardly any sale till Wednesday. We were wondering how we would pay our wholesale dealers, but it seems things are now on the right track,” a happy cloth merchant from the super market said.
Till the beginning of the week, there was hardly a trickle of customers, let alone sale in any of the shops.
But on Thursday, with majority of government employees having their salaries credited into their respective accounts and over two thousand Garo Hills Autonomous District Council employees also flush with two months of salary payment, the footfall dramatically increased in the market as shoes and cloth merchants made brisk sales in what is the biggest trading every year-end.
All roads leading to and from the main Tura market were choc-a-block with vehicles and commuters had a difficult time locating parking space. Even the main parking areas in the super market and urban department building were jam-packed with vehicles and the district police that had set up a parking zone in the police parade ground soon found it was insufficient to accommodate the overflowing number of vehicles.
With staff of the main State Bank of India on strike, hundreds of account holders were found in a beeline outside ATMs and traffic was so high that even the Chandmari SBI ATM and the Municipal Hub ATM soon ran out of money.
West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh earlier on Thursday held a meeting with the SBI officials to ensure ATMs do not run out of cash during this season in Garo Hills.
“SBI officials have assured us that all ATMs will be replenished with cash even on December 22 and 24 although holidays and those that have already gone dry will be refilled by Saturday morning,” said Ram Singh to The Shillong Times.
Shutdown
Meanwhile, in the second largest town of Garo Hills–Williamnagar — shoppers had a trying time after traders downed their shutters in protest against extortion demands by criminals on Friday. A group of persons claiming to be members of a local NGO reportedly went about demanding cash from each of the stalls while trading was at its peak on Friday afternoon.
Those that refused to pay up had their goods confiscated by the extortionist gang which further angered the traders who decided to protest with a shutdown.
It was after police beefed up security with deployment of armed personnel at all the entry and exit points of the market, that trading was resumed, a couple of hours later.
