Shoppers throng Imphal's Khwairamband market ahead of Chakkouba

Imphal's main market filled up on Sunday as people came to buy gifts, clothes and other items for Ningol Chakkouba, The Sangai Express reported. Khwairamband Keithel, also known as Ima Market, saw such a crowd that roads leading to it jammed, slowing other traffic through the city centre.

City police and traffic police were posted around the market to keep vehicles moving and to watch for theft. Authorities also played recorded announcements asking shoppers to keep their mobile phones, cash and other belongings safe in the crush.

Ningol Chakkouba, when married women return to their parental homes, falls on Wednesday, November 11 this year.

Checks on weights and prices

Staff of the Weights and Measures Department inspected stalls in the market area so that customers were not short-changed, the report said. That follows a four-day Legal Metrology drive at Ima Keithel earlier this month, when officials said they had found tampered weights.

A group of shoppers told The Sangai Express that the price of fruit and other goods, including oranges, coconuts and apples, had gone up somewhat. They said they bought them anyway, because the festival would feel incomplete without them. Last week the state government capped the retail prices of 18 essential food items in several districts ahead of the festival.

A quieter festival after three years of conflict

The same shoppers said they would not be able to mark Ningol Chakkouba with the warmth of earlier years. Manipur's ethnic conflict has entered its fourth year without a settlement, they said, and they would feel guilty celebrating on the old scale while many people have been killed and tens of thousands remain displaced from their homes.

They recalled that the Meitei community had skipped the festival for two years as a mark of solidarity with the victims. This time, they said, they still wanted to keep the tradition alive.

The government on Sunday transferred Rs 1,000 each to 58,863 displaced people from the State Emergency Fund as festive assistance before Diwali and Ningol Chakkouba. Civil society groups have separately asked the authorities to speed up rehabilitation.

NEInsider will update this story if the city administration issues a traffic plan or further market advisories for the days immediately before November 11.