Srinagar, Sep 04 (KNO): As the water levels rise above danger mark in Srinagar, the markets witnessed the sound of shop shutters in Lal chowk and adjacent areas with the owners along with the helpers moving the belongings to safer places in the dead of night.
The shopkeepers, haunted by memories of the devastating 2014 floods, rushed to shift their belongings, fearing that the rising waters of the river Jhelum could once again swallow their livelihoods.
In Lal Chowk, Maisuma and surrounding commercial areas, the shopkeepers were seen reopening their outlets, to shift the belongings.
Huzaif Ahmad Wani, a ready-made garment shop owner, told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), as soon as the water crossed the danger mark in river Jhelum, they along with the other shopkeepers in Palladium Lane rushed to the shops again, not for business, but for the survival.
“We didn’t want to face losses. The situation was similar to 2014,” Wani said, adding that “we lost everything that year. We can’t afford to wait for a warning this time.”
Many of these traders are still recovering from economic setbacks over the past decade—first the floods, then prolonged lockdowns, and now, yet another threat.
Meanwhile, he said that the majority of the shopkeepers have shifted their belongings to the safer places.
Pertinently, the heavy rainfall led to the rise in water levels in different rivers and streams, causing the flood-like situation in Jammu and Kashmir second time in the last two weeks—(KNO)