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Pune: In a major relief to retailers and shop owners in Maharashtra who were for some months now were hit hard by heavy economic losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said that the present curtailed shop timings would now be extended till 8 p.m. in districts with a low case positivity rate.
The Chief Minister who was on an official visit to rain-battered Sangli district in western Maharashtra, stated that the administration would issue an official order later today extending shop timings till 8 pm instead of the current curtailed 4 pm time.
Thackeray’s statement comes a day after the Pune Chamber of Commerce statement stating that repeated Covid-19 induced lockdowns had left traders and shopkeepers in dire economic straits and had threatened that it would keep all shops open till 7 pm from August 4 onwards in defiance of pandemic regulations.
“While I am sympathetic to the plight of traders and shopkeepers, I am not going to be scared off by such threats…let me remind of the lethality of the ‘second wave’ and the grave oxygen crisis a month ago. The State only has a capacity of producing 1200-1300 metric tons (MT) oxygen. At the peak of the second wave, we faced a massive shortage of 500 MT shortage…fulfilling this deficit had proven extremely arduous and we could secure oxygen from neighboring states with the greatest of difficulty,” remarked Thackeray.
While the Chief Minister nevertheless said that the government would extend timings till 8 pm in districts where cases were under control, he warned that the Centre, too, had advised stringent adherence to pandemic regulations if a third wave of the contagion was to be averted.
“In the event the third wave strikes, then we might be staring in the face of a severe oxygen shortage, and procuring the same from neighboring states will not be easy…so, while shop timings will be extended till 8 pm in places where the cases were in check, rules would not change in districts where cases and fatalities were still high,” said Thackeray.
Earlier, the Pune Chamber of Commerce had complained that even four months after the State government-imposed restrictions on shop timings, and despite the number of Covid-19 patients in Pune city are steadily declining, the administration had not lifted these restrictions.
“There is huge dissatisfaction amongst the business community as a result. consecutive lockdowns since the first wave and the resulting economic depression caused by this situation has led many traders to commit suicide…if Pune is in the list of places where restrictions on shop timings are to be lifted, then we welcome the decision. If not, we will keep our shops open till 7 pm and beyond from August 4,” remarked Fatehchand Ranka, president, Federation of Trade Association of Pune (FTAP).
Ranka asserted that traders had without any complaints had cooperated with the government thus far, despite incurring heavy losses.
He further remarked, “In the last one and a half years, due to complete lockdowns or mini-lockdowns, city traders have suffered staggering losses to the tune of Rs. 75,000 crores. Uncertainty in the business has caused many to lose their jobs, with families of traders and their employees in financial straits. E-commerce companies, on the other hand, are permitted to do a lot of other things”.
Ranka further said that the Pune Municipal Commissioner’s directive of Saturday mandating that no restrictions would be lifted was akin to rubbing salt on the wounds of traders despite promises of Pune’s Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar on extending shop timings.
“Unscientific policies of the local administration and the State government have made the business class worse off than the effects of the pandemic. Our federation has set up vaccination facilities at our own cost…the government has not taken any decision on vaccination of traders, employees and their families when it ought to have. Now, it cannot dictate us to keep our shops closed,” added Ranka.
Besides Pune, traders’ associations in Mumbai and Nagpur have been frequently petitioning the State government in the past month to lift restrictions on shop timings.
