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Non-essential shops to be open in Pune for 12 hours from 7am: PMC chief Gaikwad
The PMC, as per the new order applicable till May 17, has categorised a list of shops to be open on each day in order to avoid sudden rush
After multiple orders leading to confusion, Pune municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad issued a fresh notification on Wednesday allowing non-essential standalone shops to open between 7am and 7 pm from Thursday in areas other than containment zones of the city.
The PMC, as per the new order applicable till May 17, has categorised a list of shops to be open on each day in order to avoid sudden rush. The move comes after district collector Naval Kishore Ram allowed sale of petrol and diesel to everyone between 7am and 7 pm. The order stated five non-essential standalone shops on a particular road or lane within a distance of one kilometre will be allowed to remain open .
In the earlier orders, PMC had allowed the shops selling non-essential commodities in the non-containment zones from 10am to 6pm though police on the ground did not allow stores to operate due to lack of clarity.
In his order, Gaikwad has allowed shops involved in selling and repair of electronic gadgets, mobile phones to be opened on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while hardware, plumbing, construction and cloth stores along with vehicle garages will be allowed to open on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Five shops selling non-essential commodities on a particular road or lane in the distance of one kilometre will be allowed to remain open on one particular day and on the next day, other five shops will be given permission to function,” said Gaikwad.
As far as containment zones are concerned, no relaxations has been offered to any other shops other than essential commodities, vegetable and milk centres which will be allowed to remain open between 10am and 2pm.
Gaikwad while using his powers vested in him by the state government has issued fresh guidelines to avoid confusion caused during the past two days. Gaikwad had earlier reduced Pune’s containment zones to three per cent out of total of 330 sqkm area of city limits.
Meanwhile the district collector Naval Kishore Ram has said liquor shops within 500 metres of containment zones will not be allowed to operate.
