Hyderabad: The All India Industrial Exhibition (AIIE), popularly known as “Numaish” is likely to be held again in January 2022, at Exhibition Grounds in Nampally.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition was suspended for the year 2021. This year around 2500 stalls will be set up at Numaish that will produce Rs 15 crore income to the state government through GST and Municipal tax.
For the last 80 years, the Exhibition was successfully organized from 1 January to February 15. This year was the first time that the annual Numaish could not be conducted.
The exhibition will attract around 50,000 visitors a day and the total number of visitors throughout the 45-day period would be approximately 20 lakh.
The High Court case:
It is alleged that the Exhibition Society has not fulfilled all the criteria necessary to conduct Numaish-2022 and as such shouldn’t conduct it as it could result in colossal loss of life if a fire breaks out again. Regarding the issue, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Telangana high court by local lawyer Aijazuddin Khaja.
In the court case, Dana Kishore, who was the GHMC commissioner in 2019, filed a counter-affidavit, stating that the Exhibition Society had not taken up proper permission in 2019 which caused the fire back then. The fire resulted in colossal loss of property the ramifications of which are felt by the traders even till date.