Many left job at Ghazipur mandi, traders find hard to manage loss

NEW DELHI: A year after the sudden announcement of demonetisation, the vendors and traders of the Ghazipur mandi are still suffering from the shock of loss. While nearly 60 per cent of people related with the Mandi worked as porters, van driver has left the job, the wholesalers are finding it hard to manage the loss.

The traders' associations said that the continuous high price of onion and tomato is also connected with the loss in demonetisation.

"My business faced nearly 70 per cent loss last year. I am still struggling with that loss," said Prasad Sing, a vegetable shop owner at the Ghazipur sabzi mandi. He explained that after the demonitisation was announced, many of the porters left the place, the van drivers took over separate jobs and the day to day helpers also headed towards their villages to cope with the situation. "This crisis affected the whole place, there was a time when porters used to come to us for work and now we look for them," Singh said.

The meat market traders echoed similar views. They said the sale of meat has dropped nearly 30 per cent in the last one year. "The big restaurants are not buying much, people also have curtailed their cost, which have affected our business and now after GST we do not know when will it improve," said Mohammad Rashid, a meat seller.

Adding to this, the fish vendors said that the supply of fish has also dropped in the past one year. They pointed out that due to the crisis, the fishermen and the whole industry at the coasts and the riverside left these professions and took up other business. The changing profession and scarcity of labourers have affected the mandi which they are still fighting to overcome.

The traders' associations observed that the price hike of the vegetables is also related to these issues. 'Government is saying that the price rise is due to hoarding but we know that this is because of the supply. After demonetisation, this whole business chain has got affected and the price rise will stay in the coming days," said a member of the traders association.

However, the vendors asserted that the digital transaction in the market has increased.