As the valley continues to witness uncertainty from the last four weeks in the wake of scrapping of Article 370, the Jammu based traders and tour operators are also facing the worst financial crisis due to the ongoing shutdown and restrictions as they assert that their larger client base was in Kashmir.According to Kashmir News Observer (KNO) correspondent who travelled to Jammu to gauge the mood, the Jammu based business community are left in lurch due to minimum demand for their products from the valley since August 5. The impact of the ongoing clampdown in the Kashmir valley could clearly be seen in the busy markets of the city of temples that include Residency Road, Raghunath Bazar, BC Road, Bikram Chowk and elsewhere.Ravi Kumar, an employee from the Jammu based automobile dealership wishing anonymity told KNO that the demand for the automobiles have been dropped steeply in the previous month of August 2019, only few hundred vehicles merely about 15% of the previous year are dispatched to the valley due to the low demand resulting from the ongoing clampdown and communication gag.”
He told KNO that they continue to suffer losses and are afraid to lose their jobs if the demand and supply is not balanced due to the ongoing tensions which impacted the demand from the associated dealers of the Kashmir who are reeling under the continuous gag.Amit Pal an employee at Pal Travels told KNO, “The most of our travelers belong from the Kashmir valley and due to the continuous uncertainty in the region our business is running below the average.” He further said that their agency mostly receives the bookings telephonically and via an online portal through the internet services which are unfortunately gagged there.Our business hugely depends on the situation of the valley and unfortunately the ongoing restrictions and clampdowns our business continues to remain affected at large. Pal also told KNO, “We are off the view about the present situation in Kashmir but as far as the customer flow is concerned we guess that something is wrong there because we have never witnessed a decline in traveler’s base like this.”(KNO)