Shillong, Nov 02: The unusual rise in the prices of essential items and vegetables seems to have dampened the spirit this Diwali for consumers.
Cracker shop owners are keeping their fingers crossed until the eve of Diwali. Several Cracker shop owner at Police Bazaar, the commercial hub of Shillong apprehend a drop in demand this year.
This is mainly because of the rise in prices. This year the sale of firecrackers is much less.
This Diwali has become an ordinary day for many in Shillong. The impact of inflation and price rise is quite visible here.
Dealing with over two month long agitation, the business class community see this as an opportunity to earn profit, but again inflation has dampen the spirit of Diwali in this pine city.Not only this, even the price of fire crackers this year has shot up.
The price of the normal fire crackers has gone up to double making the common man rethink before buying bigger quantity.
“Last year I came to market with Rs 2000 to buy crackers and I get a good amount but this year because of the sky rocketing price of Fire Crackers I could buy only little this year,” said young Vijay who earn his daily living.
“My business has gone down in last two months because of this agitation, bandh etc, the sell was down and now during Diwali I expected that I couldatleast earn enough profit but because of high prices the sell could not go up and my profit margin is also not that good now,” said a businessman.
“Half of the time there were agitation and bandh, we always were worried because of the arson cases in the town, I work day and night to save some money for my little children to celebrate Diwali but the price of the sweets, fire crackers, lights everything has gone up, just imagine how a poor man like me will celebrate Diwali,” says Ravi, the father of three children.
This is not just the story of one family that has been affected by high inflation costs, but several other families of the royal city too are planning to curtail their budgets for festival celebrations.
This Diwali the extravagant splendor seems to be writ large on every face. The already congested roads in Police Bazaar have been occupied by make-shift vendors selling knick-knacks in the road side.
The rising prices of oil to light these earthen lamps have forced the people to do a rethink on their lighting this year. They now prefer to decorate their houses with small electric bulbs instead of candles and diyas. But the price of a small string of electricity bulbs is not so less. This year even the price of electric decorated bulbs is skyrocketing.
Similarly, candles are selling at Re 1 to Rs 20 depending upon the size. Many decorative bulbs, including those with the shape of diya are available in the market. (SP News)
