Guesthouse and hotel owners at Ajmer who were hopeful of making some quick money during the 801st Urs were a disappointed lot. The room tariffs that had gone up to Rs 3,000 for single bedroom went down as low as Rs 400 on the last day of Urs on Friday.
It is said that the issue of heavy protests against the Pakistani delegation in Ajmer and the rumour of unrest throughout the country scared the devotees and their number dwindled. On the last day of the Urs, a large number of devotees came to attend the prayers but they avoided staying in the city and most of them went back the same day.
The low turnout of devotees from different parts of the country also disappointed shopkeepers as they had hoped for good sales during the event. According to official information the turnout of devotees in last one week was not more than 2.20 lakh as against the expected number of 5 lakh.
For district administration the time turned relaxed as they had put every effort for the security of Pakistani pilgrims coming to Ajmer. The CID that had a charge of government central girls' school which was booked for the stay of Pakistani delegation qlso went hand free as the Pak delegation was cancelled on last moment.
People calculating that the effect of protest of Pakistani delegation coming to participate in urs is seen directly on the numbers of devotees coming here, "Certainly the turnout is low as what was expected but and we should learn lesson from the reasons" said a khadim.
The hotels owners who had increased the tariff card for the urs had given rooms on low cost as the competition went high this time as even small localities came out with rooms for devotees in dargah region.
"Last year hotels in the dargah region were full on the second day of the Urs. There was no place left for other devotees but this time the hotels wore a deserted look," said a hotel owner.
The tariff for a single room was fixed averagely as three thousand rupees a day and five thousand for a double bed in the dargah region but with low numbers of devotees they went back to five hundred rupees for single and eight hundred for double bed room.
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