Newspaper sales register dip, rumours continue to do rounds in Tangla town

A Correspondent

TANGLA: The newspaper hawkers in Tangla town of Udalguri district have started to resume their newspaper delivery activities following public demand and government’s appeal but the baseless rumours of newspapers carrying coronavirus seem to be ruling the minds of a section of readers as many regular consumers are avoiding reading newspapers, leading to a dip in sales of newspapers.

“We are worried about our career as the lockdown has hit the print publication. I have even started to look for other avenues,” rued Babool Sarma, a hawker of the town.

“We deliver the newspapers at people’s doorsteps but we decided to suspend newspaper distribution on March 31 as there was a dip in sales and many reported difficulties, including ill-treatment to hawkers,” said Subir Roy, another hawker.

While echoing similar concerns, hawkers Raju Joarder and Krishna Roy appealed to the hawkers to take self-precautionary measures like social distancing while performing their job and exhorted newspaper readers across the State to clear the outstanding dues to ensure that hawkers could continue doing their job properly.

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