Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 22
THE SUNDAY ban on business concerns has made cash registers of stalls at the Railway Station heavier. Stall owners and shopkeepers, when interviewed today, confided that sales were up as compared to last year’s Sundays. The Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) restriction on businesses from opening on the seventh day, exempting only those dealing in medicine, came into effect on January 1.
The sale of ‘paan’ has especially shot up. “There is a marked increase in paan sales these Sundays. Since all other shops in town are closed, people come to me,” a person waiting shop at Metro Paan Store located at the Railway Station said.
A policeman manning the entry to the Station said a lot of people are frequenting the station. He informed that an order had been passed that till Republic Day only platform ticket holders would be allowed access to the Railway Station. However, people are not complying to the order with the argument that since it is ‘our’ station, “we can come for a cup of tea or paan as we wish.”
Food stalls are raking in the moolah even more. “Our sales are really up,” a chapatti stall owner said. Some shops are even courting a fine by opening their shops after dusk. “If they (DMC) come and check after dark, I will have to pay a fine but I will keep my shop open,” a shopkeeper who runs his business outside the Railway Station said.
Rice and tea hotels around the bus station area in Dimapur are still operating to feed the bus wayfarers. Hungry travelers and hotel lodgers throng through the partly opened doors of the hotels. “We keep our hotels closed during the daytime but in the evening, hungry passengers traveling via Dimapur request us to open”, informed one of the Manipuri hotel owners.
