Tribune News Service
Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, January 14
Hit by Omicron and its SOPs, professional traders associated with the wedding industry claim to have been suffering losses while their bulk orders witness a fall.
A wedding offers employment to a large number of people from diverse professions such as band players, waiters, electricians, photographers, videographers, DJ, florists, decorators, security guards, caterers, cooks, taxis and others. It is that time when vegetables, fruit, dairy products, poultry, spices and other eatables are bought in bulk, giving impetus to the sales, thereby, infusing liquidity in the market.
Happy Narula, who is into the wedding industry, said, all of a sudden, uncertainty over this industry, has started looming large. “We are keeping our fingers crossed and waiting impatiently for the guidelines to be issued on January 15. However, looking at the high number of fresh Covid positive cases being reported every day, we do not feel the restrictions to go anytime soon.” A rough estimate suggests that business amounting to crores is not taking place and thousands of daily wagers associated with the wedding industry lost their earning completely.
Salil, a wedding photographer, said, many organisers postponed while some scaled down their functions, directly hitting their assured income. Ranjit Singh, a resort owner, said, as per schedule, post-Lohri marriage season was to intensify and hundreds of programmes are lined-up till the first week of March. Wedding functions bring sale to a cross-section of trades such as costly jewellery, clothing, cosmetics, wares, domestic electrical gadgets and plethora of other commodities.
Vipul Kumar, a florist, said, fresh orders for decorating marriage and reception parties and stages of bride and groom stopped as people were not aware how long the restrictions will remain in place. He said a team of 10 to 12 persons was engaged in decorating a function.
