Vegetable vendors join strike

He somehow managed to get a “back-door” entry into shops of a couple of vegetable vendors whom he knew. “They saved my day. Otherwise it would have been difficult to cater to 200 friends who came to pay respects to my father,” he said.

Sanjeevani Pandey of Chinchwad has decided to keep her birthday low key on Friday. “I wanted to invite my close friends to dinner. It’s not possible now as vegetable markets are mostly shut. I’ve instead decided to serve puran polis to guests,” she said.

Some vegetable vendors said theirs was a one-day token strike in support of traders and they would be open on Friday. “At some markets a handful of vegetable vendors were present today also,” said a vendor.

The shopkeepers’ strike also hit students hard. Praveen Lulekar,a student of Ranade Institute,said: “I live at Narhe Ambegaon and it has become difficult even to procure basic necessities like milk and bread. Moreover,we have an exam going on and it has become tough to even to get stationery items like pen and paper.”

Tanvi Deshpande,who lives with other girls near Aundh,says she has to go to shopping malls to buy basic supplies and vegetables. “There are no malls near my place,and we had to take an autorickshaw to a mall to stock up on grocery. We were completely out of stock,as all of us had just returned from a vacation,” she says.

Mihir Somik,a sociology student of Pune University,says students living away from their families are the ones suffering the most. “The traders may have a point,but it is the innocent who are suffering. The shopkeepers should find some other way…”

Invoke ESMA,says RPI

The Republican Party of India has urged the state government to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against traders. In a letter to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan,RPI leader Siddharth Dhende said the poor were suffering due to the strike. “There is black marketing of essential commodities. The traders’ stand is unjustified as there is no LBT on essential commodities,” he said. The state government should apply ESMA against traders,he said,adding that if the situation does not improve by Sunday,the RPI would launch an agitation against traders.