Business Units Other Than Essential Goods and Services Closed in Karnataka Till May 4 to Contain Covid
News 18Several shops and business establishments were allegedly forcibly shut by the administration due to a revised order by the Karnataka government on Wednesday that business establishments other than grocery and hardware will not open till May 4 as part of steps to contain the surge in coronavirus. According to the modified order, ration shops, grocery shops, wholesale vegetable markets, restaurants and hotels to sell takeaway products, standalone liquor shops and bars, food processing related industries, banks and insurance companies, delivery of e-commerce and barber and salon shops are permitted to operate with strict adherence to the COVID protocol. However, as the traders opened their shops, the police and senior municipal and district-level officers reached there asking them to close following revised guidelines, some shop owners said. A few of the traders termed the closure of shops as ‘partial lockdown’, which would deal a severe blow to their businesses, which is already in doldrums for the past three to four years.