Vijayawada: Traders heave a sigh of relief as govt increases relaxation hours

Vijayawada: The decision of the State government to change the curfew timings, from 6 am to 2 pm, from the existing time of 6 am to 12 noon from June 11 to 20 evoked mixed reaction from the traders and trade associations.

Some trade associations said the change of timings will be beneficial to the traders while some others are of the opinion that the change of timings will have no impact as the customers generally don't come to bazaars in the scorching heat.

With the spike in cases the government has imposed lockdown from May 5 in the State. The government had given permission to open the shops from 6 am to 12 noon till June 10. On the other hand, the police start the implementation of lockdown between 11 am and 11.30 am because all shops must be closed by noon at any cost. The customers come to the shops after 9 am. Consequently, the traders are left with only two to two-and-a-half-hours for doing the business.

The traders, both retailers and wholesalers in Vijayawada city, suffered big loss due to the lockdown. The traders too cooperated with the government for implementation of lockdown because the second wave was very harsh and several thousand people died in the State since March 2021. The government extended the lockdown till June 20.

Now, with the decline of Covid positive cases from 20,000 per day in May to 10,000 cases per day in recent days, the government has relaxed curfew from 6 hours to eight hours. The traders can do business from 6 am to 2 pm.

BV Lakshmi Varaprasad, executive member of Krishnaveni Wholesale Cloth Merchants Association, One Town, said the relaxation will be beneficial to the traders to some extent. He said he had not opened the shop since lockdown started on May 5. Most of traders in the market did not open the shops because they could not do business in two hours from 9 am to 11 am. He said the traders now could do business from 9 am to 1 pm with relaxation given by the government.

However, he said both wholesale and retail textile traders are worried with drastic fall of business due to lockdown and postponement of marriages and other auspicious events due to lockdown. He felt the lockdown is inevitable to contain the Covid cases, and positive cases decreased by 50 per cent in the last one month.

K Srihari Satyanarayana, joint secretary of the Bezwada Jewellers and Bullion Merchants Association, said gold and jewellery traders have no business during past one month. The change of timings will have no difference on the gold and jewellery traders because very limited number of customers comes to the shops. He said due to cancellation of marriages and other important functions, the business drastically fell in recent weeks.

Kirana and grocery traders are of the opinion that extension of curfew relaxation will be beneficial to the traders because they can do business up to 1.30 pm. R Bhaskar, a trader in Samarangam Chowk said the traders can use the two hours extra time for both purchase of provisions from wholesale markets and for sale to the customers.

Several thousand grocery shops are there in the city. Besides, super market and shopping malls can avail the exemption to continue business till 2 pm.

KG Market Retail Merchants Association secretary A Srinivasa Rao said the traders habituated to lockdowns and would adjust as per the orders of the government. Petty fruit vendors, vegetable vendors, retail traders selling footwear, fancy items, textiles, restaurants, road side kiosks, curry points will be benefitted with extension of relaxation time by two hours. Besides, a large number of auto drivers, maxi cab drivers will also have enough time ferry their customers during the relaxation time given by the government.

KVS Durga Prasad, secretary of the Rice Merchants Association, felt the change of curfew timings will have no impact on the rice traders as the customers can buy rice in the morning before 11 am. He said the rice traders would adjust to the timings announced by the government.