Unlock, Stock & Staring Down Barrel

While Most Markets See Little Biz Activity, Covid Norms Largely Given A Miss Across City

- Vibha Sharma & Paras Singh

New Delhi: On Day 1 of the second phase of lockdown relaxations, not many shops opened, and those that did in markets like Connaught Place, Lajpat Nagar, Greater Kailash I &II, Green Park, South Extension, Sadar Bazar, Laxmi Nagar and Preet Vihar mostly had no customers. TOI also saw that on an odd-dated day, shops with even numbering had opened in violation of the alternate day operations norm.

The otherwise crowded Laxmi Nagar market was almost closed on Monday except for a few air-conditioners and sweets shops. “Most shop owners opened the shops only to clean them and to check their stocks before actually starting operations,” said Ashok Gupta, a trader. Things looked similar at Preet Vihar where many big showrooms were empty.

Even the major south Delhi markets in Green Park, GK I and GK II M Block and South Extension wore a deserted look. There were very few customers around and the shops seemed to be taking the opportunity of carrying out maintenance work after almost 50 days of closure. Rajender Sharda, head of the M Block market at GK I, requested the government to have all the parking attendants vaccinated in the next few days and to prevent the Civil Defence personnel from harassing people to boost customer confidence.