BHOPAL: Things are seemingly back to normal at BHEL Dusshera Ground, where the five-day long ‘Lokrang’ is presently underway. After the sharp spell of rain and hailstorm, accompanied by gusty winds, late in the evening on Republic Day, threw the arrangements awry, with pandals crashing down and water gushing inside.
Around 500 vendors of handloom and hand-crafted decorative and utilitarian items, who have set up their stalls in the event, are a bitter lot. They have come from far-off places including Jharkhand, Bihar, UP, Punjab, J&K with great hopes but they say that the sales are not even a quarter of what they used to be when the venue of the event was Ravindra Bhawan. It is noteworthy here that no POS machine facility is provided at any stalls and there is no ATM in the area as well.
The sprawling ground was teeming with people when Free Press correspondent visited the place on Sunday afternoon – the penultimate day of the event. But the crowd, the sellers insisted, were nothing when compared with the turnout of last year or the years before. And they all blame it on the change in the venue. “Yeh jagah shehr ke kone pe pad jata hai”(This place falls in a corner of the city), said Manoj Bisht from Jharkhand, who has put up a stall of bed linen. He said that his sales were down by almost 40 per cent. He also complained that he had suffered a big loss due to the rains. “There was no protection from water and our wares got soaked. Many of our products including saris have got stained and now no one is going to purchase them. We have already dispatched back half of our stocks, as we had no hopes of their sale”, he said ruefully. “All the vendors have suffered losses but we can’t expect the government to compensate us for that. That would be impractical”, he added.
Similarly, Azara Ahmed who hails from Rajasthan says, “We have been participating in Lokrang for the past 20 years but the sale is not good like previous years, even the last year. We could only sell 40 per cent as of now. I think, one of the reasons may be the ground which is so big that visitors are not reaching this side. Yes, our products got wet due to sudden rain”. He further added that “There is no facility of POS machine here, so we are taking payment from both cash and Paytm.”
Last but not least, 60-year-old Ghulam Navi from J&K says, “for the past many years, we have been participating in the fair but Ravindra Bhawan ‘jaisi baat nahi hai’. The sale is very poor this year. We couldn’t sell our product even 20 per cent till now but last year our sale was 70 to 80 per cent,’ adding that ” people only come at stall for asking price not for purchasing. I think, changed venue and rain affected the sales along with other factors.”
