VASCO: The Damodar Saptah Festival is long over but 600 stalls owners at the fair, in the Port Town are desperate for a two-day extension to help tide over some of their losses in a loss filled week.
Several of the around 600-odd stalls selling different items ranging from clothes, toys, sweets, decorative items, etc, seem to be hit by a business slag this year-round and many of the owners of these temporary make-shift stalls on Monday requested the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) to extend the days of fair by two days.
However, the Mormugao Municipal Council chairperson Leo Rodrigues said the stalls will be dismantled and the roadside footpaths cleared, latest by August 10.
After two years amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the Mormugao Municipal Council decided to permit Saptah fair this year for seven days after the Damodar Temple Committee announced that Saptah Festival will be celebrated on a grand scale.
The council authorities also made markings for 1,000 stalls for the fair but about 600-odd stalls finally put up their stalls.
A stall owner Ali Mohammad Hassan said that while they had expected huge profits, the business was not on the expected lines. “We have not been able to recover our costs. Anticipating a good business, we had brought in more people to work at the stalls and our costs went up. We have to recover our costs and we hope Mormugao municipality will give us a few days extension on humanitarian grounds,” said Hassan.
Another stall owner Dayaram Kevat said the business was slow during the entire week except for a small spurt on weekends. “We don’t want to complain because Damodar Saptah has never incurred losses to any of us all these years. We have been working hard day in and day out for business which has not happened as expected except on weekend, he said appealing to the municipal council to extend the days of fair till Sunday so that we can make a considerable profit.
Yet another stall owner Rahimulla Khan said that while there was a rush to the fair, the people had been hit by pandemic and not in a mindset to buy at the fair.
“We had hoped that the fair organised after a gap of two years would reap us huge profits but we neglected the fact that the people have been affected by the pandemic and many of them declined to buy our goods perhaps due to money. We are yet to make profits,” Khan said.
When contacted, MMC chairperson Leo Rodrigues said the stalls will not be granted any extension and they will have to be dismantled by Wednesday, August 10. “We cannot give extension because we have certain limitations and we have to follow certain orders. We had done all the arrangements for these stalls and we also did not hike the rates for these stalls in a bid to encourage vendors,” he said adding that the Swatantra Path road will be opened for motorists on Tuesday and the vendors will have to vacate their stalls by Wednesday.
