20220906 Delhi: Fire brings traders to knees
India Sep 06 2022 “Building” “Stores”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : more than 70 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Delhi: Fire brings traders to knees
Updated: 2022-09-06
NEW DELHI: The blaze at the Kucha Natwan wholesale cloth market has left traders distraught and shattered, with many complaining that they have suffered losses amounting to several crores.
As firefighting operations continued on Monday, traders sat consoling each other at Yadhuvir Singh Park. Among the hardest hit was 71-year-old Rajender Malhotra, whose textile shop was badly affected. “Everything is over”, he told the others.
“I opened this textile shop in 2010 and was running the business with the help of my son. On Sunday night, I was home in Gujranwala Town when I got a call about the incident. I rushed to the spot and found my shop was engulfed in fire. Everything is now zero,” he said.
Malhotra owns the ground and three other floors of a building, where he claimed goods worth Rs 4 crore were kept.
According to traders, this is the first time such an incident has occurred in the market, which is decades old and has more than 1,000 shops, mostly of clothes and fabrics.
“Most of them have been running their businesses for several years now and something like this has never happened. We had no chance to remove our stocks,” a trader said, adding that the government should come forward to help them.
Family members of the traders were also present at the spot and held back tears as they witnessed the devastation. It was a double whammy for them, as they incurred heavy losses just before the festive season.
Jitender Duggal (56), another trader, looked worried as his shop was housed in one of the buildings damaged by the blaze. “It is my family business. I don’t know what will happen,” he said.
Anand Jain, who runs a textile shop, said, “I have no insurance. I have left it to God.” When asked about his loss, he said he didn’t know the exact amount but the goods in his shop were worth over Rs 1 crore.
Web Source: The Times of India