Curtains down for Sangai festival today
Ticket Worth Of Rs 20 Sold At Rs 100 At The Festival Venue; Visitors Taken For A Ride
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, November 29 2015:
The ten-day Sangai Festival which commenced from November 21 last will conclude on Monday.
On the ninth day of the festival, ticket worth Rs 20 was sold at Rs 100 to 200, said sources.
Most of the ticket counters in the festival were shut at 3 pm after selling around 35 thousand tickets, informed sources.
Unscrupulous individuals took advantage of the situation and sold tickets to the festival at an exorbitant rate five to ten times higher than the usual rate.
Local visitors who thronged the venues had no option but to buy the tickets and passes from those who were planning to rake in the moolah from the given situation.
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A source who did not want to disclose his identity informed that a ticket priced Rs 20 was sold at either Rs 100 to Rs 200 to the visitors reminding of a time when hordes of people who had formed serpentine queues in front of erstwhile film theatres that dotted Imphal City some decades back during the premier screening of Bollywood blockbusters.
Though the ticket counters were shut at around 3 pm, visitors continued to throng the main venue till around 7.30 pm to enter the festival venue.
A visitor who booked the ticket from a "black marketeer" informed that he was shocked to find out the ticket counters closed.
When inquired, some visitors advised him to book the ticket from the "black marketers" at Rs 100 .
Moreover, sources also informed said that most of the commercial stalls in the festival were selling commodities and food items at extra exorbitant prices during the festival.
A commodity worth of Rs 20 has been sold at Rs 100 and the authorities and civil society organisations still remained as silent spectators, alleged another person who did not wish to be identified.