India News | Sarojini Nagar Shopkeepers Protest Against Order Allowing Street Vendors, Hawkers

New Delhi, Jun 26 (PTI) The Sarojini Nagar market shopkeepers on Saturday kept their shops closed till 1 pm to protest against a Delhi government order permitting street vendors to operate there.

Ashok Randhawa, president of the Sarojini Nagar Mini Market Traders' Association, claimed the Delhi government has allowed street vendors to operate in the market and this has increased the risk of Covid spread.

"The government has allowed 92 vendors to operate here. The market anyway gets crowded and after this, the risk of another Covid spread has increased," Randhawa told PTI.

He added that the shopkeepers had approached the New Delhi Municipal Council seeking to assure the civic body that there would be no "violation of covid guidelines" in the market and the market was reopened only after that.

"We told the NDMC authority that there wasn't enough space to maintain a distance of 10 ft and this was a clear violation of the Covid guidelines. They have told the vendors to open shops on the odd-even basis," he said.

He added that the NDMC officials will hold a meeting with the shopkeepers on Monday at which further decision will be taken.

The Sarojini Nagar Market along with other major markets in the city were allowed to open from June 14 with due adherence to the Covid guidelines of maintaining social distancing and wearing face masks among others.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)