Shillong, May 28: Banri Nongbri looks anxiously at her basket of unsold cucumbers as the sunlight for the day begins to recede behind the buildings walls. Yet another day is about to come to an end and she’s hardly had any sale. With its complete closure of shops for Saturday and Sunday, the cucumbers won’t last till Monday. She looks at her stock of cucumbers with even more stress, knowing another week is about to end and another pile of her vegetables will be thrown away; it’s only a matter of when as the shadows of the sun become longer.

These are tough times for everyone as the second wave of the Corona pandemic has hit hard. The vegetable farmers and vendors are no exceptions. They have had to continue to come to their shops and makeshift ensemble around Shillong to sell their produces and ensure the city residents do not starve. But what about their losses and sufferings, as they hire taxis and tow theirs produces every day.

Banri Nongbri has much to say about her ordeal in finding buyers for her basket of cucumbers that have been lying since Monday. She is of the opinion that she would have been happier if these cucumbers would have rotten in the fields than rotting here at Anjali Parking lot, at least that would have saved her the trouble of carrying them all the way here, waiting for days for some meager sale and saved her taxi hiring charges.

Unfortunately, she is one among the many in the farming community that is facing this crisis currently.

K. Nongum, a vegetable trader, is confused with how the government expects them to sell their goods when only two or three customers are allowed through the gates of Anjali Parking lot. She believes that it would have been better for them to close down rather than having to throw away all their goods.

“It is better if they close the gates and don’t allow us to sell our goods anymore. Let us die out of hunger,” said Nongum.

Despite the Meghalaya government’s decision to identify several areas for setting up of wholesale and retail markets, several of the farmers and vegetable traders have faced challenges. On Friday, the farmers and traders had an altercation with the East Khasi Hills District Magistrate for not allowing the customers to enter the market. Several of the farmers and traders had to cater to just a few customers which irked them even more.

The farmers have even suggested that the government should allow Iewduh (Bara Bazaar) to open so that half of the farmers and vegetable traders can go there and even the consumers can have a choice.

Nongum also seemed annoyed with the recent comment made by the Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong where he had suggested that people should not eat meat but eat vegetable and rice during this lockdown. She opined, “Tynsong feels that we can survive eating vegetables, but he is not aware that the farmers need money to buy oil to cook the food.”

Several other farmers and vegetable traders were seen in small pockets selling their goods on Friday evening, with each selling corianders or carrots. They had already wrapped them in polythene and were ready to sell them at a throw away price.

East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, Isawanda Laloo in a recent notification issued on May 24, stated that no middlemen or individual/household buyers will be permitted to enter the market areas. They may purchase from their locality stores only.