Nagpur: Markets across the city witnessed a massive rush on Saturday as citizens thronged commercial hubs for last-minute Diwali shopping. From clothes, jewellery and decorative items to sweets, diyas, rangoli colours, flowers and puja essentials, brisk business was reported in Sitabuldi, Itwari, Cotton Market, Mahal, Jaripatka and other key shopping destinations.Footfall peaked in the evening as families flocked to markets to complete their festive purchases. Colourful decorations, illuminated shopfronts and special festive discounts added to the Diwali fervour. Traders said last-minute buying gives a major boost to festive-season business.While a festive buzz gripped the markets throughout the day, shoppers and motorists expressed frustration over inadequate traffic management and civic arrangements. Rampant encroachments on footpaths, illegal roadside parking and snarled traffic turned several market stretches into choke points, forcing pedestrians to jostle through crowded lanes. Many blamed Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and traffic police for the chaos, saying it turned festive shopping into an ordeal.A TOI visit revealed little visible enforcement by civic authorities or traffic police. Footpaths across several busy markets were virtually inaccessible, with roadside vendors occupying pedestrian spaces and spilling onto carriageways. With little room to walk, shoppers, including women, children and senior citizens, had to weave their way through moving vehicles.Haphazard parking along already congested roads further aggravated the situation, triggering traffic snarls at multiple locations.“Footpaths are meant for pedestrians, but there is hardly any space left to walk. We are forced to move between vehicles while shopping. What is the use of having traffic police and civic authorities if they cannot ensure safe walking space?” said Shivani Raut, a frustrated shopper at Sitabuldi.Assistant municipal commissioner (enforcement) Sanjay Kamble told TOI that the civic body had intensified its anti-encroachment drive across the city. Around 70 personnel from the central enforcement team, along with teams from all 10 zones, were conducting operations till late at night.However, he admitted that squatters return to occupy the same stretches after enforcement teams leave. “They flee whenever our teams reach a particular stretch. After we leave the area following the confiscation of articles belonging to some of them from footpaths and roads, they return and occupy the same spots,” he said.DCP (Traffic) Aditya Mirkhelkar acknowledged the problem and assured that joint action with NMC would be intensified. “We have been regularly taking action against encroachments on footpaths and will further intensify the crackdown,” he said.
