CANACONA: The weekly bazaar commonly called Saturday Bazaar at Chaudi which was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been reopened from Saturday to a lukewarm response from the local residents.
The Chaudi Saturday Bazar which began its operations in 1998 during the tenure of Santosh Gaonkar as the chairperson of Canacona Municipal Council was a big hit in the taluka as hoards of vendors from across the State descended at Chaudi with not only vegetables and fruits but also other ware.
It was estimated that the total turnover on the day of the bazaar was nothing less than Rs 50 lakh during the normal times.
And after serving over 10,000 households in the taluka for over two decades, the administration had closed the market since March last year, citing social distancing concerns.
After a gap of about 10 months, now the bazaar was reopened on Saturday.
The bazaar, which otherwise attracts a huge rush of customers, saw a few who did their purchases as per their requirements.
Around 20 vendors arrived early Saturday morning mainly with vegetables from Belgaum and Haveri in two trucks.
In normal times, over a hundred vendors mostly from Haveri District of neighbouring State of Karnataka used to come to Chaudi early morning with vegetables, fruits, ready-made garments, masala, and other household items.
Asif Killedar, a vegetable vendor who has come all the way from Haveri speaking to Herald informed that they were sceptical about the customer turnout and that’s why they came with less stock.
“Today only 20 vendors came, and in normal times over 100 used to come, by next week more vendors will come,” Asif informed.
Enquiries revealed that a total of about Rs 4 lakh worth vegetables were brought by the vendors from the wholesale market in Belgaum and by evening most of the stock remained unsold.
When asked what they will do with the leftover stock one vendor said that they will go to Cuncolim as the market day is on Sunday.
After the Saturday market was closed down in March, as a stopgap arrangement, the locals had set up vegetable and fruit shops at different locations in the taluka which was a big relief to the locals and it is yet to be seen how the locals will now respond to the opening of the central market.
