Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday decided to allow shops and market to remain open for extra two hours from July 9. In the fifth phase of the lockdown, the government in ‘Mission Begin Again’ has given relaxations on the lockdown despite the surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
With ‘Unlock 2.0’, shops and markets can now remain functional from 9 am to 7 pm in non-containment zones from Wednesday. Earlier, the deadline for shops and markets to remain open was till 5 pm but now it has been extended by two hours.
Issuing an announcement to this effect, the government said it goals to control or decrease crowding. In the municipal corporations including Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Solapur, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik, Malegaon, Dhule, Akola, Jalgaon, Amravati and Nagpur, markets have been allowed to remain open on all seven days of the week. However, markets and shops in these areas will run on alternate days.
The order stated, "Now in further relaxation with an objective to control/reduce crowding, the markets/shops will be permitted to open for 2 additional hours and can function from 9 am to 7 pm.”
In the rest of the state, all shops and markets will be allowed to remain open from 9 am to 7 pm on all seven days of the week starting July 9. The notification states, "If any crowding or failure of social distancing norms is seen, then the authorities will immediately close down such markets/shops.”
A day earlier the government had permitted hotels providing lodging services outside containment zones to reopen at 33 per cent of their capacity from today.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra is among the worst affected states in the country at the moment with 2,17,121 COVID-19 cases. Maharashtra reported 5,134 fresh cases and 224 deaths on Tuesday.
