With the Eid ul Fitr around the corner, there is a reign of festive mood everywhere. There is obviously the traditional upbeat in preparing for observance of the Eid festival which marks the end of the month long fasting. It is time again to rejoice all together.
While the mood of celebration gets intensified as the Eid day draws near, common people pass through bitter challenges that range from abnormal price hike of food products and other essentials to traffic congestion to hardships in getting travel tickets on railway or airlines or buses. Added to the list are nightmarish hurdles in home-journeys asserted by pot-holed roads and highways as well as painful waits at ferry ghats. These are nothing new and people have taken them as usual rough threads in weaving the Eid celebrations.
Truly, people can and should be given comfort in celebrating such an occasion. First, there has to be a paradigm shift in the mindset of our business people. Obviously not all business people are unscrupulous but it is also the moral responsibility of the good and honest business people to come forward in controlling the bad lot. After all, it is the whole business community that gets labeled as bad.
Normally, prices of all things related to such festivals come down in all countries and societies. Talk of Christmas or Puja or Chinese New Year etc., consumers enjoy unbound pleasure in shopping due to offers of discount. Unfortunately it is the opposite in our case as the unscrupulous business people play their profiteering games. Our consumers have no choice but be exploited.
Eid shoppers are also being exploited in the quality of products. There are already reports of widespread sale of poor quality or seriously adulterated food items. Many defaulting shops or outlets, some prominent ones too, have been punished heavily. However, they return to their greed soon or later in complete shameless and "don't care" attitude. There has to be continuous monitoring and much more serious punishment.
Another important issue centering our Eid celebrations is the safety on the roads and highways or even waterways. Over the years it has been seen that lots of tragedies take place on the roads and waterways due to over-speeding, overcrowding, negligence in police patrolling and above all, conduct of the drivers.
Related to this is the factor of over-pricing of travel tickets during the Eid holidays period. It has been seen that inter-city bus services raise the normal fare which by all means is illegal and illogical. The concerned authorities time and again have cautioned against such practices but to no relief of the passengers. The transport owners seem to be stronger and steadfast in their quest to profit as much as possible disregarding any initiative or caution by the responsible authorities. Black marketing of railway tickets which was rampant some years ago, has of course scaled down much these days.
Eid celebrations will go on with its historic and traditional fervour. However, the holistic theme of the celebration should not be allowed to be marred by greed, malpractices and incongruent attitude of some people. There should be a political as well as social campaign to ensure that Eid is an organic fiesta for us. Eid Mubarak!
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