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Vendors and customers do business at the Dellai-Gate Sunday bazaar at the Assam-Nagaland border. The closure on business on Sunday in Dimapur has turned out to be a remarkable boon for neighbouring Karbi Anglong.[/caption]
DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 10 : Not many years ago, the Dellai-Gate sunday bazaar was just a small Sunday market where residents from the neighbouring areas would come to sell their farm produce, from vegetables to fruits, and from poultry to meat.
Dellai Gate Sunday Bazar is a weekly market located near the Nagaland check gate bordering Assam.
Vendors are mostly from Karbi Anglong district in Assam besides a few other non-locals who are regular to the bazaar, an open marketplace with open stalls.
During its initial years, the market was not as crowded as can be seen today.
The story is a bit different now. For the past two-three years, the number of customers to the market has grown immensely.
Commuters on Sunday taking said route will see a massive traffic jam and an overcrowded market where, not surprisingly, most of the Sunday bazaar shoppers are from the community of neighbouring Nagaland.
Now with closure of shops and markets in Dimapur on Sundays, the Dellai Gate bazaar has become the central market for hundreds who need to shop for food and grocery adding to the already teeming market.
Sunday, observed as a day of rest for Christians, has also become a day for shopping especially for those coming from Nagaland with quite a number longing for shopping and apparently not the Sunday devotional.
Interestingly, Naga individuals are involved not only in buying— some can also be seen selling local items at the hotspot.
All said, the phenomena reflects the fact that the ‘loss’ for Dimapur has become a benefit for others—the flow of business out of the state with another making gains.
Revenue goes to the Dellai-Gate Sunday bazaar since closure of shops on Sundays was announced in Dimapur by an organisation. Now the market is attracting more and more traders even from distant places. Second-hand apparel sellers, local pigs, poultry, and organic local food are apparently in huge demand by the people of Dimapur district who throng the market.
From early morning, traffic from Dimapur adds to the frantic business at the Sunday market. It is not only farmers who are benefiting—local tax collectors charge a nominal fee for each stall. And the stalls number to the hundred.
The revenue that leaves the state has become a serious issue that seriously needs to be pondered upon.
Like Sunday Bazaar in Assam, Dimapur also has weekly bazaars such as the Wednesday bazaar at the Super Market, Tuesday bazaar at Lengrijan, and the Saturday bazaar at Chumukedima, to name a few. But they are not as busy as the Dellai Gate Sunday Bazaar. The meaning itself tells a different story.