Traders threaten to protest if Sunday off not changed

Ludhiana: Huge resentment is being witnessed among shopkeepers and traders against the state government’s order to keep the markets and shops closed on Sundays. Already opposition has been expressed by a lot of shopkeepers on this rule, which came into effect from this week. Businessmen are of the view that they will suffer huge losses if Sunday continues to be the mandatory off.
Speaking to TOI, Gurdeep Singh Gosha , president of Business Bachao Morcha, said, “It is very unfortunate that the state government without taking any sensible view of the on ground situation has taken this arbitrary decision. The decision of fixing Sunday as mandatory off is going to cause losses worth crores to Ludhiana traders as there are thousands of shops of both wholesale and retail. Everyone is dependant on Sunday for their sales as on the other days the markets get closed at 6pm due to lockdown restrictions and therefore no customers comes for purchasing on weekdays. It is our warning to the government to re-think its decision and rather than earmarking Sunday as the mandatory off, some other day during the week should be fixed as off day it is the only way to boost the business of traders across all trades. If nothing is done, then we will resort to a protest to get our demand accepted.”
According to Manpreet Singh Bunty, presidnt of Akal Garh Market Association, “The quantum of losses the shopkeepers will be suffering due to Sunday as an off day is unimaginable. It was only on Sunday that not only retail, but shopkeepers from other parts of Punjab used to come to our market for buying the garments in bulk. It was this day sales due to which the livelihood of the shopkeepers was running. But now everything has been destroyed as Sunday has been restricted for movement. It is our request to the government to reconsider it’s decision before it’s too late and fix any other day for off instead of Sunday. If nothing is done in this regard then the patience of traders will run out and we will have to resort to other ways like protest.”
Aman Ahuja, a hardware shopkeeper in old city area, said, “Customers, be it businessmen or self employed or servicemen, used to come for purchases only on Sundays. But with this day of the week restricted for movement and opening of shops and establishments, it’s nothing less than a great setback. We request the state government to change Sunday and make any other day of the week as the restricted off for the shops, so that we are able to earn money to at least pay our expenses and manage our families.”