The members the Kirana Merchants Association of Visakhapatnam met Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao here on Friday and requested him to represent to the government to make partial lockdown mandatory.

The association has already voluntarily imposed partial lockdown and are operating from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the past few days and on Monday they met the Minister and requested him to make it mandatory so that all shops, including big shopping malls, remain closed after 2 p.m. “The cases are on the rise and we have already entered the community spread phase and this is the time we need to be more careful, that is why we have imposed voluntary partial lockdown and have represented the same to the government,” said R. Jagganadham, president, Kirana Merchants Association of Visakhapatnam. It may be remembered that tribals in Paderu and Araku in Visakha Agency had already imposed voluntary lockdown from the first week of this month.