Despite weekend lockdown, shops remain open in Jammu

JAMMU: Despite the order of lockdown by the administration, the markets, and business establishment remained open for the entire day.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Thursday ordered imposition of complete restriction on non-essential movement in the Union Territory from every Friday 2 pm to Monday 6.00 am.

However, in Jammu, the markets, and business establishments remained open for the entire day after the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry claimed that they (CCIJ) had talked to the administration for relaxation in the restriction till 9 pm in the evening.

Arun Gupta President JCCI said, “I have talked with Deputy Commissioner and SSP Jammu to give relaxation to the traders till Friday evening,”

“The festival and marriage season is going on. Traders can’t afford a three-day lockdown. I had made a request to the administration to allow normal functioning of bazaars for Friday and also appealed to the traders to close business establishments for Saturday and Sunday,” Gupta said.

In the meantime, around 2.30 pm, when all the markets were working normally, the official Twitter handle of Deputy Commissioner Jammu reconfirmed the administration’s order and stated that there were complete restrictions on non-essential items till Monday morning.

“𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃 𝐑𝐞st𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐮, Complete restrictions on non-essential movement from Friday 2:00 PM to Monday 6:00 AM. No restrictions on transport, essential services and home deliveries during this period (sic),” tweets Deputy Commissioner Jammu.

Later, speaking to the media DC Jammu Anshul Garg said that Jammu District at the request of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry shops were allowed to open to avoid panic. He said the consultations were held with traders to shut shops for Saturday and Sunday so that the transmission chain could be broken.

However, the strict lockdown was observed afternoon in districts of Jammu including Kishtwar, Ramban, Doda, Poonch and Rajouri.

Pertinently, the government imposed an unannounced weekend lockdown across Jammu and Kashmir last Saturday and Sunday in wake of the surge in Covid-19 cases across the Union Territory.

The formal order in this regard, the Chief Secretary, who is also Chairman of State Executive Committee (SEC) has said that there shall be a complete restriction on non-essential movement in the entire UT of J&K from every Friday 2.00 pm to Monday 6.00 am, henceforth.

It also said that the pregnant women employees will be exempted from physical attendance and they shall be allowed to work from home—(KNO)