Aurangabad, Nov 2:
The revellers buy various kinds of lamps, lanterns and other accessories, including illumination material during Diwali festival. To fulfil tradition, the devotees buy a few earthen lamps (pantis) made by local potters so as to place them during Laxmi Pooja and in different corners of the house. However, the remaining items, including decorative materials, are bought from China-made. The reason is that they are available at low prices. And this trend seems to be growing in the market these days.
Earlier, the prime minister and many other political leaders had appealed to the Indians to avoid purchasing China-made products and prefer Indian products during the Diwali festival. As a result, due to the spread of Coronavirus from China and their controversial role against India, many business people chose to stock 80-90 pc Indian products. However, the cost of Indian products is two to three times more than Chinese products. As a result, the customers are saying no to Indian products. If we do not show them the items of low prices, they leave the shop telling it is very expensive and move towards another shop, grieving the traders.
Like every year, Chinese products are not available in adequate quantities in the city. The traders, if the order is placed, then they would get their delivery after four days. The customs duty is levied upon the Chinese products, therefore, the rates are also on the higher side to some extent.
Says the trader Nilesh Malani, " Rarely one or two customers, insisting on showing Indian products, visit the shop. There is also mention of ''Shubh Deepavali'' on Chinese lanterns. Moreover, if the cost of any Chinese product is Rs 50, then the Indian product will cost around Rs 150. Hence the obvious choice of the majority of customers is to save money and buy foreign products. Moreover, there is a large number of devotees who think of buying items and materials for the festival every year. Hence they just wanted products which would function till this Diwali only."