Vegetable sellers find market along Dimapur’s roads

Dimapur, April 11 (EMN): Dimapur town is rapidly growing in business and population; the number of consumers in the market has increased. This has indeed attracted suppliers and wholesellers from different parts of the country to bring in goods penetrating every part of the town.
Among them are also small tribal business groups and communities from neighbouring communities of Dillai gate in Diphu, Karbi Anglong of Assam.
They have also started to notice Dimapur town as a promising business centre for them. They are now slowly bringing different kinds of vegetables and home-grown fruits which are set out along ‘pavements’ and walkway areas allotted by the Dimapur Municipal council (DMC).
Tribal vegetable sellers near the Dhobinullah traffic island in Dimapur told Eastern Mirror that there were around 600 to 700 tribal from Adivasi, Karbi, Garo and Kachari communities who come to Dimapur by bus every day or sometimes thrice a week to sell vegetables and fruits.
The items are mostly grown by them or bought from wholesalers at Dillai Gate.
Some spoke about how they all struggle to get the day done by starting early in the morning carrying the vegetables that weigh around 50 kilos and walk for more than an hour to reach Dillai gate to board the bus.
They spend around Rs. 50 a day for bus fare with additional Rs. 10 rupees to shell out at Nagaland gate. On reaching the Blue Hill station early in the morning, everyone goes to their respective locations. One would see the sellers occupying footpaths and pedestrian areas along the City Tower areas, Dhobinullah traffic point, and Holy Cross areas. There they will be seen till late in the evening. They will later return to catch the bus around 5:30 pm.
According to a vegetable seller, most of them carry vegetables worth almost one thousand rupees each time they bring from home. However, it seems most of the time, some get spoiled or wasted along the way during transportation. The rest of the produce are either preserved for the next day or consumed by them most of the time.
Eastern Mirror queried them about what they usually do at home when they don’t come to sell vegetables. It depends on the availability of vegetables from where they usually buy, they replied. Likewise, they go out to work on others’ fields and sometimes engage in clearing jungles for plantation.