Team Herald
PONDA: Ponda vegetable and cloth market opened a week ago, but the vendors have claimed there has been a reduction of around 50 per cent customers.
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The vendors fear that the rise in corona cases may be one of the reasons that customers are scared to visit the Ponda vegetable market.
Many customers are not aware that the market has opened and to add to the vendors’ woes, people are selling vegetables and other goods along the roadside and this is another reason that Ponda market is witnessing few customers.
The vendors claimed that they have never witnessed such loss in business. In the pre-COVID-19 scenario, even during lunch time, there were many customers visiting the market, but now the number has declined. The vendors said they are forced to open their business in the evening.
They claimed that there has been a reduction of around 50 per cent customers and added that several customers, mostly migrants, left Ponda following the COVID-19 crisis.
Gharu Sawanth, president of Amchi Vyapari Sanagatana (vendors association) said the corona scare has reduced the number of customers in the Ponda market by 50 per cent. He said the public transport has not be fully operational as yet as many buses are still off-road due to which people are not able to visit the Market.
Sawanth said except the fish market, vegetable, flower and cloth market are opened and that people of Ponda taluka can visit and buy goods by maintaining social distancing.
He said the vendors and customers as precautionary measure should carry out business by wearing masks.
