Closure of shops: Power bill, GST number to help odd-even take off

Ludhiana: As the authorities are all set to implement the odd-even rule for shops dealing in non-essential items in Ludhiana from Monday onwards, they have made it clear that in case shops have no serial numbers, then the selection can be made on the basis of electricity bills, GST number or they can even assign a temporary number to shops to execute the order.
The order issued by the district magistrate-cum-deputy commissioner on Friday said, “Not more than 50% of shops dealing in non-essential commodities shall remain open on a given day within the jurisdiction of Ludhiana municipal corporation. Non-essential shops having even serial number will open on even dates and shops with odd serial number will open on odd dates.”
“The Ludhiana police commissioner and MC commissioner will implement this odd-even formula. But all shops dealing in essential commodities shall remain open on all days as per the timings given in the order. And there will be no odd-even outside MC’s jurisdiction,” the order read.
Asked about whether it will be difficult to implement the order as every shop doesn’t have serial numbers, deputy commissioner Varinder Sharma said some things are in letter and spirit, but spirit is more important than the letter. He said he has left it to the local SDMs and SHOs to decide on how to implement the order.
“If there is some problem anywhere, they can take help of the electricity bill numbers of shopkeepers or GST numbers. Even temporary numbers can also be allotted to these shops,” the DC said. He said the SDMs, SHOs can sit with associations to come up with a system to implement the formula or even associations could do it on their own.
The shopkeepers are meanwhile skeptical about the implementation of the order.
“The order is better than complete shutdown as the business community has to earn its livelihood as well. Already we have faced the brunt of long lockdown. If they are coming up with such an order wherein shops dealing with non-essential articles will open on alternate days, they should at least exempt the power bills of these shops as they have to pay full month rent for the shops,” said Gurpreet Singh, a stationary store owner near Jawahar camp market area.
“However, we doubt whether they will be able to implement the order as not every market has shops with numbers. Even if they devise a system to implement it, customers will be confused on whether a particular shop will be open on a particular day or not,” he added.
In a message, Ludhiana police commissioner on Saturday evening said, "Only 50% Non Essential shops will open in any particular area. Even number shops can open on even dates and odd number shops can open on odd dates on weekdays. The places where shops do not have number, they can paint temporary numbers with the help of market associations.”