It’s getting to be very confusing. The Chandigarh administration on Friday discontinued the weekend lockdown after imposing it on August 21 following a spurt in Covid-19 cases.
Though it ordered shops and malls to remain open, the administration decided to continue with the odd-even system that is operational in the city’s 11 congested markets.
The weekend closure had come after Haryana and Punjab took similar decisions, but with the former allowing shops to open on Saturday and Sunday, UT authorities decided to follow suit.
Unlike Haryana, however, UT will not be closing shops and malls on Monday and Tuesday instead.
But in Punjab shops will still remain closed on weekends.
Now what are tricity residents to do? Do they go to Sukhna on Monday, avoid shopping in Panchkula on that day and go mall hopping in Mohali on Tuesday?
Won’t some sort of uniformity in rules help as there is extensive cross border movement between Chandigarh, Panchkula and Haryana? One city closed and the other partially open is bound to inconvenience residents.
Also, keeping malls and some shops open on Sundays will lead to concentration of crowds in some spots, something that can be a disaster in a pandemic situation.
The UT’s August 21 decision once again appears to have been a knee jerk reaction as it was roundly criticised by traders, who said they would suffer losses and be hit by the odd-even system as well.
{{/usCountry}}The UT’s August 21 decision once again appears to have been a knee jerk reaction as it was roundly criticised by traders, who said they would suffer losses and be hit by the odd-even system as well.
{{/usCountry}}The interests of traders, vendors, restaurateurs, gym owners and others who have incurred substantial losses in the lockdown period too have to be factored in to get the economy going again.
It’s time for tricity authorities to come together to thrash out a solution to control the spread of Covid-19, at the same time ensuring that uniform rules are imposed in all areas with minimum losses to businesses.
Unprecedented times require innovative solutions. Let’s see what the administrations of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula come up with.
CLOSE CALL
Should tricity have uniform lockdown rules?
Why will a coordinated lockdown help in the tricity? How can opening of malls and markets be planned better? Send your responses with a photograph to chandigarh@hindustantimes.com by September 4.