Aizawl, Dec 21 (PTI) Christmas shopping has finally
picked up in Mizoram's capital Aizawl city with people
including those from the villages in a shopping spree for new
clothes for children and gifts.
Till this week, the shopping was extremely low,
keeping the shopkeepers worry.
Mawiteii a ready-made garment shop owner at Barabazar
said that in the yesteryears she experienced a large number of
people visiting her shop from mid-December.
Many people attributed the dull shopping behaviour to
the acute financial crisis being faced by the state government
which resulted in non-payment of salaries to thousands of
government employees for months.
Lalthlamuana Ralte of Economics Department of
Pachhunga University College said that the impact of delayed
payment of salaries to the government employees was felt in
the market as the 50,000-strong government employees
contributed around 60 per cent of Gross State Domestic
Product.
"If the government employees spend less, the business
in Mizoram was immediately affected," Ralte said.
Ready-made garments, toys and gift items were the main
targets of the festival shoppers, while a few wealthy shoppers
also went for expensive cars and two-wheelers, Thangliana, a
shopkeeper said.
Sending Christmas cards have been replaced by text
greetings through mobile phones for more than half a decade,
though there were still some people who valued the good old
greeting cards.
To ease the problems of the shoppers, the state
government would enforce a three-day No-Vehicle Zone in the
main shopping area where no vehicles, except for ambulances
and emergency services would be allowed to ply or park, during
the peak shopping days.