As if the impact of demonetization was enough, Monday’s bandh call turned things worse for vendors and traders as fewer customers turned out at markets fearing political unrest. The CPM, which had called the stir to protest against the travails of the common man, was at the receiving end as small businessmen blamed the party for accentuating the crisis. “If you can’t help, why make us suffer even further?” fumed Khokan Naskar, a fish vendor who hardly had any business on Monday . Prior to demonetization, Naskar was so busy attending to customers that he could have lunch only at 2pm. Nowadays, there is less business and his lunch has advanced by an hour. On Friday , he was so bored of waiting for customers that he decided to have his meal at 11am. “If the currency crisis persists, I may have to wind up business and switch to some other trade,” said the vendor who has been selling fish for three decades. Against Rs 20,000 per day till three days ago, his earnings have plunged to Rs 8,000-10,000. On Monday , he didn’t hope to do beyond Rs 5,000.”With most customers offering Rs 2000 notes, I have to turn them down as I don’t have the change,” he said. Vegetable vendor Swapan Halder also slammed the Left for calling the strike. “It was extremely immature to call a strike. I hardly got any customers in the morning. Since we deal in perishables, they can’t be stocked either,” he rued. Dwipannita Halder, an owner of a garment shop in Gariahat, decided to shut down after surveying the area in the afternoon. “For over a week, my business has suffered to so much that it didn’t make sense to open shop if sales dipped any further,” said Halder. In north and central Kolkata, too, small traders, hawkers and pice hotels were the worst off as business dwindled on Monday .
2016 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.