Businessmen seek 7-day lockdown in Doon

Considering that increasing cases of Covid-19 disease may further rise in the provisional state capital in the next few days, several businessmen and shopkeepers want the State Government to impose at least a seven-day lockdown in Dehradun to lessen the risk of contagion among people. With social distancing, wearing of masks and other preventive measures being ignored by many in public places, members of the business fraternity state that the number of Covid patients in the city is increasing every day and most of the recent patients who were tested positive in the last few weeks are shopkeepers or people working in stores and therefore, it is important to break the chain of the contagion like it was done in March by a short lockdown. "The administration has instructed to shut down marketplaces on a fixed day every week but it is not going to work in the present crisis. We need a lockdown of seven to ten days so that the chain of contagion can be broken and an increasing rate of Covid-19 can be restricted in Dehradun," stated Pankaj Masson, a member of Doon Udyog Vyapar Mandal.

He also opined that the State government should also help the businessmen of the city, especially when they get infected from Covid-19 disease. "When a businessman or a store owner gets tested positive for Covid-19, his staff and his family members have to go under quarantine and his store remains closed for at least 15 days. In case he has been admitted in a private hospital for the treatment, he has to pay a heavy bill for his treatment too," said Masson. He added that if the government hospitals are having issues in admitting or treating new Covid patients, the administration should also pay for the treatment of a citizen in a private hospital in such cases. Moreover, Masson opined that the government should help the small shopkeepers financially too amid the current crisis if a seven-day lockdown would be imposed in the city.

Meanwhile, some shopkeepers opined against the idea of lockdown stating that it might not affect the big businesses but they will be facing severe financial loss in their already bad running business. Responding to such issues, Masson said that these are hard times for everyone but if the contagion will keep on increasing at this rate, it can impact anyone. "There are only a handful of businessmen who do not want lockdown because most of us are aware of the seriousness of the situation. Some people still think that they cannot get this disease and do not take measures taken against Covid-19 seriously. Such ignorance from both the customers as well as the shopkeepers is the reason that the cases are increasing tremendously in the public places," added Masson.

Meanwhile, he also informed that the association will soon approach the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat proposing the idea of lockdown in Dehradun to restrain the spread of Covid-19 disease.