From Our Correspondent
TURA, Oct 16: With the biggest festival for the Hindus in Garo Hills just a few days away, preparations are on in a grand way to celebrate Durga Puja this year in the region with Tura leading the way. However despite the close proximity to the festival, puja markets are yet to catch up, as has been the case over the past few years.
The town of Tura saw at least 30 puja committees in the various localities organise Durga Puja in their respective areas though for some strange reason, the Central Puja Committee (CPC) was left out of organising the event as it had been doing for decades by the district administration for reasons unknown.
However this year, the celebration as well as organisation will be handled by the CPC, a move that has been welcomed by most puja committees. The CPC, for itself, has promised a grand celebration of Durga Puja as well as further activities that it would undertake each year.
While Puja may be just 4 days away, markets, which would otherwise be brimming with shoppers have been wearing a deserted look with customers few and far between. Compared to about 5 years ago, the volume of business, as per locals, would not even come close to 20% of sales as was earlier experienced.
“Firstly people have moved a lot of their shopping online and this has drastically affected the local marketplace. No one wants to go to the local shop owner despite the fact that they will be able to see and feel what they are buying. With most online sites guaranteeing cheap and best, the local shop owner has lost most of their base,” added one Susanta Biswas, while talking about the market situation.
Not only has online shopping dented customer base, the lack of handy liquid cash has also impacted sales. With most sections of the state, including the state government, the GHADC going through a major cash crunch, money has become hard to come by. While the employees may not have directly had an impact, the fact that they have less spending power has meant that business owners have less money to circulate through their business.
Another factor that apparently has impacted business is that people with money through government contracts or through their workplaces prefer to go out of Tura or other district headquarters to shop and give the local markets a miss.
“This is true to a great extent as people with money don’t generally buy from the local marketplace. They have too much of it and afford spending this outside either in Guwahati, Siliguri or other cities,” felt another shop owner from Tura.
Despite the fact that it has been 2 years since COVID and markets have stabilized a bit, its impact still remains.
“COVID taught us online shopping even for essential goods and this trend has continued. People are still to get out of the mentality and going by the state of things, we may never get out of it. We have reduced our budget for the Pujas in line with the situation but there are still a few days for the market to pick up,” felt another shop owner, B Dutta.
Others however held out hope that things will change for the better in the next few days though the glory days of the entire family depending on the local kirana may long be gone.