Essential commodities shops to remain open from 7 am to 1 pm ; PRs, businessmen had urged guardian minister to fix timings

Aurangabad, April 16:

The administration has decided to take strict prohibitory action under 'Break the Chain'. As a result, the essential commodities shops will be allowed to remain open from 7 am to 1 pm only. The district collector Sunil Chavan, while speaking to the newspaper, has informed that a detailed order in this regard will be released tomorrow (on Saturday) morning. The order will also mention providing three hours for the fruit-sellers and medical shops in the afternoon.

It may be noted that a joint meeting of public representatives, business fraternity and government officials was held to discuss the need for strict measures to be taken under 'Break the Chain' implemented in the district from April 14, at Sinchan Bhavan today morning.

The guardian minister Subhash Desai also guided the meeting online. He assured the members in the meeting of taking appropriate decision considering people's emotions and after discussing the matter with the district collector, Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator and the commissioner of police (CP).

MP Imtiaz Jaleel, MLC Ambadas Danve, MLA Pradeep Jaiswal, MLA Atul Save, president of Zilla Vyapari Mahasangh Jaganath Kale, general secretary Laxminarayan Rathi, Ajay Shah, Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce's Tansukh Zambad, Marathwada Chamber of Trade and Commerce president Praful Malani, general secretary of Chemist Association Vinod Lohade, Nikhil Sarda and AMC deputy commissioner Aparna Thete and deputy commissioner of police Deepak Girhe attended the meeting.

Rush on the roads

A detailed discussion was held on how people are rushing at the shops in the market, although under the Essential Services, all the grocery shops, milk centres, vegetable shops, petrol pumps etc are open from 7 am to 8 pm. Despite making appeals, the people are not paying heed and violating the prohibitory orders by stepping out of their homes.

Suggestions from PRs

- The essential services shops should be allowed to keep open from 7 am to 1 pm.

- Fixed timings for fruit-sellers in the evening as the holy month of Ramzan is underway.

- Medical shops near the hospitals should be allowed to remain open for 24 hours. The administration should make a decision on the timings of other medical shops.

- The administration should ensure that Remdevisir injection is not black marketed.

MLC meets collector

The public representatives, in today's meeting, gave the responsibility of briefing the district collector about the meeting to MLC Ambadas Danve, who then had a meeting with him in the afternoon. Danve conveyed the suggestions of the public representatives made in the meeting.

Release of revised order today: DC

The district collector said, " The public representatives in a meeting made some suggestions. Few of them had come to meet me in the office. The government has given the authority to the district collector to release the revised order. Hence the order regarding strict prohibitory action will be released on Saturday morning."