Connaught Place wears a abandoned look throughout COVID-induced lockdown, in New Delhi.
Lockdown shouldn’t be a everlasting answer and the Delhi authorities should now consider opening markets in a “phased manner” with strict enforcement of legal guidelines, mentioned National Delhi Traders Association (NDTA) president Atul Bhargava, who alleged that no reduction in any way has been given to merchants sitting on heavy losses.
The lockdown first imposed on April 19 amid a steep rise in COVID-19 instances has been prolonged thrice to this point. On May 9, it was prolonged by one other week by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, until May 17 morning.
“Nobody was in favour of the lockdown since the beginning. But then we just had no option keeping in view the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases. However, now we are of the opinion that the government instead of extending lockdown should open the markets in a phased manner with strict enforcement of laws and proper sanitisation,” Bhargava advised PTI.
“Here, we also need to understand that even after the opening of the markets, it will take another 15-20 days for people getting ok with the idea of heading out and us to restore the sense of confidence in them,” he added.
ALSO READ |Â 500 extra ICU beds arrange in Delhi for Covid sufferers at Ramlila Maidan
Delhi reported 13,287 new coronavirus instances and 300 extra fatalities on Wednesday, whereas the positivity price got here all the way down to 17 per cent, the bottom in practically a month, based on the well being division.
According to Bhargava, the merchants, who’ve stood with the nation in “all difficult times”, are actually in dire want of assist from the federal government and claimed that the “umpteen letters” written to the powers that be for assist have fallen on deaf ears.
“No relief has been given to traders in any form till date. We have to pay our EMI, salary, rents, payments, property tax, loan repayments, GST on time without any support from the government. More and more traders are finding it difficult to survive. I have written at least 150 letters to people in positing power requesting them to help the traders community, but have failed to receive a single reply so far,” he claimed.
Equally nervous with the current state of affairs of the shopkeepers, Baljeet Singh Kohli, Chairman of the Palika Bazar Association, has requested waving off the property license payment invoice for the months of May and June.
“It is not out of the place to mention here that we have paid the license fee bills to the NDMC during the lockdown period in 2020 and no relief has been given by them in spite of our repeated requests. The situation is just going to get a lot worse with time,” he claimed in a press release.
