Early closure of gyms leaves owners in lurch

Ludhiana: The state government’s decision to close all gyms and training centres in the city after 6.30pm has left the gym owners in the lurch.
The decision has forced the local gym owners to shut down their training centres for the next few days as they are unable to pay huge rents to land owners on which they have established their gyms to sustain their livelihood. It was after much protest and after about four months that the state government had given them permission to reopen the gyms.
Amarjot Singh, a gym owner, said, “Earlier, we had been struggling with low turnout of people for admission to the gyms for training but after the recent decision our business has again hit the bottom. We will have to close the gyms in the evening when most of sports enthusiasts usually come for physical training.”
In the wake of a large number of Covid-19 cases, already a large number of fitness enthusiasts have been staying away from the gym centres.
Gurpreet Singh, another gym owner, said that the government should implement strict lockdown for the next 15 days to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the district. He rued that he had been running a gym on rent for the past several months but with the new restrictions he would have to pay the entire rent for using the space for limited hours, which was totally unfair “as we are facing huge financial losses with the implementation of curfew norms in early evening hours”.