After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s decision (BMC) to allow all shops to remain open every day on both sides of the road from August 5, the traders of the city also demanding the same from the civic administration.
The traders, who are following odd-even rule for opening shops in the city for the past few days, on Tuesday urged the Nagpur Municipal Corporation to do away with the odd-even rule at the earliest possible. In addition, the Mumbai civic authorities have allowed all nonessential markets, market areas and shops to remain open from 9 am to 7 pm. The new circular also allowed liquor shops to commence counter sales in Mumbai. Ashwin Mehadia, President of the Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC) said, “If the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation can take such a big decision, why cannot the Nagpur Municipal Corporation take it”,he asked.
The authorities should allow the shops to open on all days. The number of corona infected persons in Nagpur is very less than the number of infected persons in Mumbai. Besides this, the population of Nagpur is also very less as compared to Mumbai. And thus most of the traders believe that it would be safe to allow opening of shops regularly,
For the one week or so, the NVCC office-bearers have been demanding the municipal body to do away with the odd-even rule. The traders here observed that the odd-even rule has failed to the yield desired results. All the shopkeepers are following the rule but one may see unauthorised vendors occupying the empty space on the other side of the road. It is causing traffic jam and also defeating the purpose of social distancing. A delegation of the traders will meet the Municipal Commissioner and make him aware of the ground realities, he said.
