BHADARWAH: As the auspicious Eid-ul-Fitr festival is closing in, all the markets and shopping centres of Chenab Valley especially that of Bhadarwah town have come alive with hordes of shoppers rushing for shopping a couple of days before Eid.
Market opens very early especially the market of Seri Bazaar, which is the main business hub of District Doda as the dozens of vendors are seen to occupy a place since mid-night.
Shoppers from different areas of Bhadarwah, Bhalla,Thathri and Gandoh thronged fashion houses, boutique shops ,market places and kiosks across the city markets in huge numbers and shopped till evening.
Shoppers were busy in purchasing readymade clothing, crockery ,electronics, eatables and other goods.
In Bhadarwah Valley’s tertiary commercial hub, Seri Bazaar, markets remained jam-packed with shoppers moving one extreme of the market to another. Elsewhere in Ganpat Market, Khalro Market and Sadar Bazaar , markets were abuzz.
“The Eid rush picks up in the last 10 days of Ramadan, but this year momentum and that usual atmosphere of festival was missing. It is only last three days the rush has started picking up,” said Iftikhar Ahmed Zarger, a readymade garment shopkeeper in Khalro Market.
Not only Muslims but a large number of non-muslims wait eagerly for Pre-Eid shopping as one can get clothes, crockery, readymade garments and electronics at cheaper prices than the routine days.
“We keep on waiting for this festival whole year because we get readymade, crockery and electronics goods at very cheap rates that too in open market. We do shopping for the whole family and almost for a year, “said a shopper Nisha Koul.
Besides the excited shoppers, shopkeepers and vendors are smiling from ear to ear as after a large slump, their sale has increased manifold.
“It has become a kind of tradition in Bhadarwah that thousands of people throng the markets before Eid as they feel confident that they will get a better deal during these days. This is perhaps the reason that during these three days, sale is more than the whole year,” said a leading businessman and owner of Jaggu Electronics and International Multipurpose Shop Imtiyaaz-ul-Rehman.
Apart from local businessmen ,dozens of vendors from neighbouring states including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are doing brisk business.
“Our group consists of 150 vendors and we are mainly dealing in clothing, readymade garments and spices, all of us are doing very good business at Bhadarwah,” said a vendor from Punjab Sham Lal.
In view of the huge rush of people to markets, police authorities have issued a special plan to decongest the main hub and to help in smooth regulation of traffic and shopping simultaneously.
“We have deployed police, CRPF and large number of cops in civil dress in and around Seri Bazaar to provide maximum security to the shoppers and shopkeepers,” said SDPO Bhadarwah Sardar Sajjad Ahmed Khan.