Mumbaiites stay in on Day 1 of state-wide restrictions

Police teams, civic employees patrol to prevent crowding. Essential shop owners say forced to down shutters by noon.

Empty roads, shut shops and closed eateries – Mumbai wore a deserted look on Thursday, the first day of 15-day strict restrictions imposed by the Maharashtra government till May 1. While street vendors selling essential items such as vegetables and fruits are allowed to operate, local authorities asked them to wrap up early as the stalls got crowded.

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Mumbai Police and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ward staff were seen patrolling the areas throughout Thursday, asking shopkeepers to down shutters if norms were violated. Mahtab Alam, a vegetable street vendor from Dadar, said, “Around noon, the officials asked everyone to close business for the day. They have instructed us to work only till noon daily, for the next 15 days. Some vendors who did not listen to the police were asked to pay ₹1,200 fine.”

Bharat Gogri, who owns a ready-made cloth store near Borivli station, tried to open half of his shop’s shutter at 9am on Thursday. Adjoining shopkeepers also tried the same. After some time, police personnel asked them to shut shop. Gogri and his fellow shopkeepers protested as hawkers continued to do business. “The state has allowed hawkers who do not pay tax or procure licences to operate while they are closing our legal shops,” said Gogri. Similar scenes were witnessed in the western suburbs of Malad, Kandivli and Goregaon.

The latest ‘break the chain’ circular issued by the state empowers local authorities to take a call on restrictions in their areas for crowd control.

The curbs have hit businesses of shop keepers and restaurateurs hard, with retail shop owners of Mumbai claiming a cumulative loss of ₹350 crore per day, and restaurateurs saying they are operating at 8% to 10% of their original income before the first phase of Covid-19 lockdown of March 2020.

Amid the buzz over a lockdown, many labour and staff working at retail shops and restaurants left the city to return to their hometowns using inter-state public transport.

As restaurants are allowed home delivery of food 24x7, some owners said they would remain open around-the-clock for online delivery. However, the business is bleak, they claim. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, vice-president of Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association of India, said, “During the first phase of the lockdown last year, 30% of restaurants went out of business. Now, we are anticipating 30% more may go out of business if the restrictions extend for a considerable time. Most staff members have also left the city, so restaurants do not have the manpower to continue operating, let alone around-the-clock.”

The wholesale markets of Zaveri Bazar, Kalbadevi and Mumbadevi saw scenes similar to the 2020 lockdown, as all shops were shut. Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale visited these places and praised the traders for adhering to the government’s diktat. Amid wedding season, many patrons who had given orders to make their jewellery faced anxious moments and were making frantic calls to the jewellers.

“We have assured our clients that we will deliver their orders before the given deadline. We are committed to it despite this lockdown,” said Kumar Jain, president (Mumbai), Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association, a leading association of jewellers.

At Zaveri Bazar wholesale market, at least 30,000 of the 300,000 workers have migrated back to their hometowns in the past few weeks.

“We will wait for the next two days and see how the situation unfolds. We are fearing the virus,” said Rakesh Das, hailing from West Bengal and employed in the jewellery unit at Pydhonie.

The handcarts, an essential for transporting goods in the wholesale markets, too, were lying unused.

“There is not a single item to carry. I am wondering how long this lockdown will last. We managed last year somehow by taking loans, but this one will break our backs,” said Dhondiba Tarfe, a hand cart owner from Mangaldas market, a cloth market.