Various trade and business organisations that had threatened to ignore the weekend lockdown in Mysuru on Sunday and open their businesses have decided to drop their plan following an assurance from Minister S.T. Somashekar to speak to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the issue.
B.S. Prashanth, who heads the newly-formed federation of several trade bodies, said the associations met the Minister here after their meeting and apprised their concerns over repeated imposition of clampdown, affecting the livelihood of people depending on daily trade.
“The Minister and the Commissioner of Police also spoke to us. The Minister said he would discuss the matter with the CM on Monday. Based on his assurance, we have dropped our plan,” he said, in a note circulated to the media.
Earlier, the representatives of various trade associations and business establishments of Mysuru who met here on Saturday strongly opposed the weekend lockdown in Mysuru citing reasons of COVID-19 spike in Kerala.
They urged the government to withdraw the clampdown as the traders and business community will be hard hit once again as they were yet to recover from the losses they suffered during this year’s protracted lockdown.
The federation suggested that the government can consider sealing or stepping up checks at the inter-state border instead of clampdown fearing COVID-19 spread from neighbouring States. “How wise is it to interrupt trade with repeated clampdowns amidst an estimate that the pandemic would remain till 2025,” they asked.
At the meeting, the representatives questioned the logic behind imposing weekend curfew in the border districts including Mysuru when Kerala itself has not gone for clampdown despite a surge in cases.
The government can look to contain the spread from Kerala with strict checks at the border, firmly preventing those not carrying the RT-PCR negative report not older than 72 hours and vaccination certificate. “If this is done, the pandemic can be kept under control instead of imposing lockdowns repeatedly whenever there is a spike,” he argued.
The traders and tourism stakeholders said the lockdown curbs were lifted on July 5 but their business was yet to stabilise. Now, with the weekend curfew, it will spoil chances of recovery and thereby put the trading community into serious financial trouble.
Mysuru Hotel Owners Association President C. Narayana Gowda, and various stakeholders from the tourism industry, heads of trade associations, travel and other organisations were present.
