BENGALURU: Just a day before the weekend lockdown was to come into effect, confusion and a sense of panic prevailed in many parts of the state with several shops and businesses being ordered to close down by the local authorities.
The cause of this was a State Government clarification, released on Thursday, to the April 20 guidelines ordering a majority of shops and commercial establishments, that were not exempted from closure, to remain closed until 6 am on May 4.
This led to many assuming that the government had suddenly imposed an ‘unannounced’ lockdown and the police were rushed to implement it.The fear of a lockdown saw people even in services exempted from closure — like construction and industries — preparing to leave for their hometowns.
The confusion prompted a further clarification from Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar on Thursday evening reiterating that construction sector and industries were allowed to function through the curfew with Covid-19 safety norms. Scenes of commotion were witnessed across the state. In Bengaluru, shops in Chikpet and Gandhinagar areas were the first to be forced shut.
On the other side of the city, the Airport police ensured closure of all shops at the airport except takeaway coffee, tea and food. But the scenes wrongly conveyed the picture of a forced lockdown. Only those shops and commercial establishments that were not exempted from closure were asked to shut. These included garments stores and shops that were selling items not categorised as “essentials” in the earlier guidelines. But that was not clearly mentioned in the April 20 guidelines.
JDS leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, lashed out at the government, calling it a ‘Tughlaq Darbar’ for forcing shop owners to down shutters without proper guidelines being issued in advance.
He questioned on whose permission these shops were being forced shut. He said that following Governor Vajubhai Vala’s meeting on Tuesday, the Chief Secretary had earlier issued the guidelines. But after Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa was discharged from hospital, he held a meeting with his ministers.
“According to the previous guidelines, there was nothing about closing these shops. But today, without any order or issuance of guidelines, the police downed the shutters of shops,” he asked.