Mumbai: Shopkeepers forced to declare 'monsoon sale'

Shopkeepers in areas like Hindmata, Parel area claim that they suffer huge losses every year due to rainwater entering their shops and damaging the belongings. So many shopkeepers in the area have started offering discounts to buyers. Shopkeepers have also alleged that it is the same story every year and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is to be blamed.

Vaibhav Jain, a shopkeeker in Hindmata, said, "We are running this shop for more than 50 years and it is the same situation every year after two hours of heavy rainfall. On Monday and Tuesday, all the clothes inside my shop got wet. Nobody will really buy wet clothes considering they smell bad due to rainwater. My only resort is to sell them at heavy discounted rates to recover losses."

Another shopkeeper from Hindmata, Omprakash Tiwari, said, "We are used to rain water entering our shops during monsoon every year and hence we stock very less clothes. Yesterday also my shop had knee-deep water inside the shop."