NEW DELHI: The New Delhi district administration on Monday withdrew its order directing closure of the popular Janpath market for not following DDMA guidelines after a meeting with the market associations where traders assured it of strict implementation of COVID-19 protocols.
The district administration had on Sunday directed the closure of the market till further orders.
"After the order was issued for closing pedestrian market in Janpath, the district officials held a meeting with them today. It was decided to allow them to open shops with strict implementation of COVID-19 safety measures and other protocols."
"Also, enforcement teams will be deployed permanently to prevent violations of COVID appropriate behaviour," said a senior district official.
It was informed by the representatives of market association of Janpath that they take full responsibility for ensuring COVID appropriate behaviour and implement the direction of DDMA in letter and spirit, the official added.
The district officials directed that circles shall be marked in front of shops for maintaining proper distance for the waiting customers and provision shall mandatorily be made in individual shops for thermal screening of all the customers and staff deployed at the outlets.
"All persons in the market area shall mandatorily wear masks. No shop allottee shall operate outside his allocated shop area. Further, the space outside the shop as well as the common area including pavements shall not be used for commercial purposes."
The number of visitors to the market shall be regulated by the market trader associations as well as by Delhi Police personal deployed in the market.
The entry and exit of the market shall be manned by both the employees of the market associations as well as Delhi Police, the official said.
Manoj Kumar general secretary of Janpath Mini Market Association said, "A meeting was held with New Delhi ADM in which the shopkeepers gave an assurance to strictly follow COVID-appropriate behaviour and were then allowed to resume work.
" Janpath in Delhi's famous business hub Connaught Place in Central Delhi has three market associations including Janpath Traders Association of shops on the main road, Janpath Bhawan Traders Association and Janpath Mini Market Association of small shops and hawkers.
"The issue concerned small shopkeepers and hawkers in Janpath Mini Market."
"Our shops on the main road are following COVID norms and we are very much careful as we realise the seriousness of coronavirus threat," said Toni Chawla, president of Janpath Traders Association.
Delhi was under a lockdown from April 19 to May 30 during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Markets were allowed to open from June 7 under a phased reopening plan of the city government.
Markets in Lajpat Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Kamla Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and parts of Sadar Bazar and Karol Bagh were among those shut in recent weeks by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) for violation of COVID-19 norms.
Meanwhile, traders in Connaught Place have written to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal demanding removal of illegal hawkers from the market and shifting them to another place, and alleged that they do not follow the COVID-19 protocols and might act as super-spreaders of the virus.
The New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA) has also raised the issue with chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) claiming that hawkers are disturbing COVID-19 discipline of the market.
"Connaught Place market, hawkers occupy space in the corridor, people surround them in group reducing walking space in the corridor, and they are the super-spreaders of the virus in the area.
"We would request you to remove all illegal hawkers and legal hawkers should be shifted to another place in the areas, majority of these hawkers have already been allotted space to some other areas in Delhi but they have sublet the same and continuously sitting in CP corridor," the NDTA said in a letter to Baijal.
The NDTA has claimed that merely 70 authorised hawkers are allowed to sit in CP, whereas prior to the lockdown around 289 hawkers were seen occupying space in the corridor of Connaught Place, making "mockery of the guidelines of the DDMA especially in regard to maintaining proper distance".
"If these hawkers are not restricted from sitting in CP, our whole exercise of keeping the market closed for months, conducting vaccination camp and making day-to-day awareness amongst the people will go waste.
The responsibility of making hawkers to follow SOPs is of the Delhi government, Delhi Police and the NDMC and the association will not be held responsible for this," it said.
The Delhi government had on Sunday ordered closure of Janpath market for not following Covid protocols and violating the guidelines issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).
The order, however, was withdrawn on Monday after issuing strict instructions to the traders and market associations in the area.
"Authorities blame Sadar Bazar and Chawri Bazar markets for intensifying the virus due to crowd in the market, but CP despite being a world renowned market, is always crowded by illegal hawkers, and they are not blamed for spreading Covid as no action is being taken to restrict them because they do not follow SOPs and most of them are not vaccinated.
"We would request you to please take appropriate action against the hawkers in CP under the DDMA guidelines and remove them from CP and ensure that they do not return and occupy space to make place crowded," the NDTA said.
Delhi was under a lockdown from April 19 to May 30 during the second wave of the Covid pandemic.
Markets were allowed to open from June 7 under a phased reopening plan of the city government.
Markets in Lajpat Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Kamla Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and parts of Sadar Bazar and Karol Bagh were among those shut in recent weeks by the DDMA for violation of COVID-19 norms.