Srinagar: As coronavirus threat looms large across the country, the famous ‘Sunday market’ remained closed for the second successive week as a precautionary measure to prevent gathering of people in this summer capital.
Authorities have already closed all educations institutes, stadiums, coaching centres and sports clubs as a precautionary measure in Kashmir valley, where so far no one has been tested positive for coronavirus.
”We won’t be allowing the weekly ‘Sunday Market’ in Srinagar as well – and till further orders,” Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu said.
He said other hawkers/flea markets would also not be allowed at any other place in the city till conveyed otherwise. ”There will also be no public sporting events within the city limits,” Mr Mattu wrote on the official twitter handle of Mayor of Srinagar.
The Mayor said he has spoken to SMC Commissioner and SSP Srinagar – instructing coordinated efforts to ensure all gatherings in Srinagar are prevented and discouraged.
The Sunday market on the 3-km-long road stretch from Radio Kashmir to Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the summer capital, usually attracts thousands of customers from different parts of the Valley. Business worth crores of rupees is done every week in the market in which goods, ranging from a hairpin to carpets, are sold on economical rates.
However, the entire road stretch was deserted as vendors were not allowed to put up their stalls in the market.
”We were already suffering financially due to unrest in the valley for about six months. Now we are not allowed to open our stalls for the second week, how can we survive and feed our families,” Nazir Ahmad, a vendor, told UNI.
