People flood city markets ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival

HYDERABAD: Huge crowds thronged the city markets on Tuesday evening, hours before Ganesh Chaturthi on Wednesday, with families coming out to purchase idols, flowers and the greens that define the festival.

The markets at Attapur, Begum Bazaar, Mangalhat, Sitaramabagh, Sultan Bazaar, Badi Chowdi, Monda, General Bazaar, Puarana Pul were chockful. Excited people hurriedly hopped from stall to stall to choose the best of the items at stalls and on display, leading to increased item prices.

However, a hike in fuel prices adding to the increased rates on all commodities made a dent in the usual festival season earnings.

Wholesale flower rates increased this year by 30 per cent as heavy rains damaged the flowering plants. Transportation and labour charges were up too.

Sridevi Venugopal, a flower vendor near the Ujjaini Mahankali temple, said, “I only bought one load of flowers this year against the usual purchase of two loads. Heavy rains have adversely affected the flower yield this year in Maharashtra and the rates have increased three times.”

Apart from the day-to-day items, the rates of pooja items such as oil, dhoop, incense sticks, kumkum, haldi, copper pots, and other items had also increased by 40 per cent. said Sayyed Firoz, a shopkeeper in Monda market.

A decorative items vendor in General Bazaar in Secunderabad, Srinivas Salve, said, “Earlier the rates of decorative items used to increase by 10 per cent, but this year the rates have increased by 30-40 per cent, as labour and fuel have become expensive. We are not able to make any profit as people are hesitating to buy these items.”

The decoration lights rates had also increased by 9-10 per cent compared to last year. The sale for decoration lights was also affected by various factors such as increased GST

The owner of a lighting showroom, Mahesh Prasad, said, “The sale for decoration lights this year is less, and our profit margin has gone down by at least 10 per cent. Earlier our profit was based on per piece sale, but now we have to make a profit on the turnover. Also, the GST has increased from 12 to 18 per cent, adding to the cost of the items''.

Shopkeepers were unsure if they would equal the profits last year because of the wholesale and sale margins.