No easing of Covid curbs in Pune city; traders angry, residents frustrated

PUNE The state government order denying any relief from Covid curbs for Pune city has upset traders and locals

PUNE The state government order denying any relief from Covid curbs for Pune city has upset traders and locals.

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As per state government notification issued on Monday, 11 districts, including Pune will not have any relaxations. This means shop will continue to operate till 4pm from Monday to Friday.

Local citizens said the government should have considered the city as separate administrative unit and ought to have eased curbs.

Traders and shop owners in the city were equally furious about the move while asserting that this order will make them more aggressive. The traders have decided to hold protest on Tuesday, while announcing that they will keep shops open till 7pm from Wednesday onwards, according to Federation of Trade Association of Pune (FTAP).

“From the last 1.5 years, traders and shop owners in Pune are going through a very tough situation and till now we were somehow stretching our business. But it has now become near to impossible to run a business with so many restrictions, despite taking all the Covid precautions. There are around 0.1 million workers and staff in Pune city, of which more than 20 per cent have been let go by owners, because they cannot afford to pay salaries,” said Fatechand Ranka, president of the association.

As part of the “Ghanta Nad” protest on Tuesday, all shop owners will participate in the agitation at 12 noon outside their own shops. The demand of all the traders is to keep open shops from 11 am to 8 pm for the current system of 5 days, on all seven days between 11 am and 7 pm.

“In the last one year, some of our traders have died by suicide as they cannot sustain the pressure of losses and giving salaries to their staff. In case the required changes in timings are not considered by the authorities then from August 4 all the shop owners will keep their shops open till 7pm and would be ready to face the consequences,” added Ranka.

While the common public is unhappy with the state government’s decision, Priyanka Deshpande said, “For how many more months we are going to sit in our houses and wait for things to open up and even job opportunities. As shops, offices, malls and most of the things are closed or with limited timings, there is a certain impact on entire ecosystem. State government should rethink about the public sentiment and change their decision.”

Another resident Bipin Gandhi said, “Covid cases in Pune city have gone down but the cases from the Pune district may be high, so why punish the city. Punekars are now fed up of restrictions and it’s high time to take a decision.”

The BJP, which has supported traders’ protest, also criticised government decision calling it “unfortunate”.

“The unfortunate reality of Maharashtra. Reducing restrictions in Mumbai, Mumbai suburbs & Thane district will be taken by their Disaster Management Authorities while #Pune & other districts remain at mercy of sinister motivations,” tweeted BJP legislator Siddharth Shirole