Jewellers away, Panchkula buyers head for UT

PANCHKULA: Jewellery won’t be available in the township for the next five days as jewellers have decided to go for a summer vacation from June 18 to 22, even as the marriage season is on.
As many as 48 jewellery shops in Panchkula and 120 shops in inner Manimajra will remain closed for these five days.
“As the summer vacations are going on, we thought of closing our shops for a break because even we need to take our family out.So we all decided on fixed dates for a vacation after consulting all 48 shop owners in Panchkula and 120 in inner Manimajra,” said Deep Krishan Chauhan, president of the Panchkula Jewellers Association.
He added, “Though we know that we’ll face big losses, as even the rates of gold are going quite high due to the marriage season, we have already fixed up with our customers and told them about the dates that our shops will be closed on.”
The jewellers have already given the designs that were ordered in advance due to the summer break. According to the jewellers, gold worth Rs 45 lakh is sold daily, which means there would be a loss of around Rs 2.25 crore in five days. “I feel relationships are more important than business,” said Raj Kumar, another jeweller.
Though jewellers will be on a summer break, Panchkulites will have a tough time.
“My daughter’s wedding is set to get solemnized next week and we still need to buy jewellery for her, the bride-groom and her in-laws. We used to purchase everything from Panchkula as the rates are the same everywhere but it was convenient buying stuff in the township rather than wasting time and going to Chandigarh,” said Ranjita Verma, a resident of Sector 6, who was at a jewellery shop in Sector 9, Panchkula.
Vishal Bhardwaj, a resident of Sector 21 said, “I am getting engaged in the coming week. My mum had just shortlisted the engagement ring designs but had not finalized anything. Now I think we’ll have to do it in a day’s time.”