A saree shop operates with precautionary measures in Lakshmi Road, Pune. Coming out in support of the protesting traders who are demanding extending the market closure deadline to 8 pm, Pune city BJP has urged the district administration to comply with the request considering the reduced infection numbers in the district’s urban areas.
“Since the Covid-19 spread is reducing, the timing for shops to remain open in the city should be extended till 8 pm. There is complete support of BJP to the protesting traders,” said city BJP chief Jagdish Mulik in a memorandum to the district collector. He was accompanied by representatives of various traders’ associations.
The administration has allowed the shops in the city to remain open from 7 am to 4 pm but the shops normally open only at 10 am as the customers visit the shops only after 9 am, Mulik said adding this ensures that the actual business activity takes place only for six hours in a day.
“The customers also crowd in shops in the short time for which the shops are open. If the shops are kept open till 8 pm then it would benefit customers as well as traders. The administration should also relax the restrictions on weekends,” Mulik said. The positivity rate of Covid-19 in the city is much low but curbs due to infections in rural areas is an injustice to the traders, he further added.
Mayor Murlidhar Mohol and legislator Siddarth Shirole of the BJP too have been requesting the administration to relax the timings of shops along with the strict restrictions on weekends. The non-essential stores have been banned on weekends while the essential category stores are open till 4 pm.
The district administration as per the orders of the state government has continued with the restrictions applicable for select districts in the state considering high positivity rate.
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On August 4, the PMC registered a daily positivity rate of 2.99 percent with 249 new patients on the day while 250 got cured. It registered six deaths while 213 patients were critical and 355 on Oxygen support. The active cases in the city are 2,348 and a total of 8,792 patients have succumbed to viral infection.
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