No change: Sweet Sankranthi turns sour for traders and farmers
- Traders are sending back customers empty handed as there is no sufficient change
- Sugarcane sellers and florists facing the heat of higher denomination notes
- Traders and farmers say it is not a festival of prosperity so far this year
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Many people have not come out to buy sugarcanes and those who came out brought ₹2000 note for two sugarcanes which cost just ₹100. Thanks to demonetisation by PM Narendra Modi, buyers nor the sellers have appropriate change for the notes of bigger denominations.
Hulnache Gowda, a farmer from Kolar said, agents are not placing any orders for goods as they are facing difficulty in rotating cash. They can’t pay the farmers in bulk without cash. As a result, the goods like sugarcane, jaggery and vegetables are either lying in RMC yards or withering in the fields. "This year’s Sankranthi has turned sour. With no sales and business, both farmers and traders are suffering, courtesy, note ban decision," said Hulnache Gowda.
Shankar, a wholesale sugarcane trader said, he had to ask a few of his customers to go empty handed as he did not have sufficient change to give them after purchasing sugarcane. "The customers buy one or two pieces of cane. If they give ₹2,000 for sugarcanes worth ₹100, where do we fetch the change. I got half a tonne of sugarcane to sell in Russel Market and so far have sold hardly 50 kilos in the entire day. Last year on 13 January half of my goods were sold. I fear that the note ban is going to affect the Mango season too which is fast approaching,” Shankar said.
The only community that is less affected by note ban is florists. GN Diwakar, President of SK Market Traders Association said, "Be it a happy, sad or any occasion, the people buy flowers. From small to huge quantity gets sold," said Diwakar. He added that the traders in flower market had arranged sufficient change for money ahead of Sankranthi.
Ramesh, a member of Shivajinagar Flower Merchant Association said, "For ₹100 worth flowers, customer gives ₹2,000. It is the same everywhere. They too are helpless and we are also facing the cash crunch. I got 300 kilos of flower from the wholesale market and I am not able to sell even half of it. I curse the decision of note ban and introduction of ₹2,000 note," he said.
