Hyderabad: Numaish suspended till January 10

Hyderabad: Just a day after the inauguration, the Numaish has been suspended till January 10, by the Exhibition Society in view of surge in Covid and Omicron cases in the city. After the suspension of Numaish, the exhibition grounds which is used to the hustle-bustle of thousands of visitors wore a deserted look on Monday. Stallholders were left disappointed and cried foul for the losses.

The Numaish was inaugurated by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and State Home Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali on Saturday. According to the Exhibition Society, that hosts the annual carnival of shopping, the decision was taken in view of the State government extending restrictions to check the spread of Covid-19.

After a day of closure of Numaish, the traders are a worried lot and fear that they would suffer heavy losses. Traders from Kashmir, Gujarat, Lucknow, Delhi, Rajasthan said that they had been installing their stalls as society had ensured of running a 45-day annual exhibition, but sudden shut down for 10 days would lead to severe loss, said Shafeeq Ansar, an owner of Kashmiri Silks at Numaish. "The way cases are increasing it feels that there will be no hope of continuing Numaish this year too," he added.

Ritu, an owner of Rajasthan Fabrics said, "There is no other way than the stallholders wait for the further steps to be taken by the society as well as the government guidelines on reopening of the annual event."

According to sources, most of the major stores have not initiated the works of setting up stalls and most of the major brand stallholders have also skipped the stalls this year. "The losses are more from importing of material from the other States," said Rakesh Singh of Rajasthan emporium.

However, the decision to suspend the exhibition has been trolled on Twitter by twitterati. "The government do not have the proper adviser? Already the government banned public gatherings in the month of December, then why did it inaugurate the exhibition on January 1. Now, who will bear the loss of stall holders," tweeted Amirullah Khan.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the High Court of Telangana by lawyer Khaja Aijazuddin against the Exhibition Society demanding that such massive gatherings should not be accorded permission. The PIL is still pending and is due for a hearing on Tuesday.