Bihar Lockdown: Traders, Businessmen Protest, Seek Permission to Open Shops

Patna: Businessmen, traders and street vendors in Bihar are angry with the state government’s decision to extend the lockdown and have sought permission to reopen their shops to prevent further financial distress.

A day after Bihar extended the lockdown till September 6 in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, angry businessmen, traders and street vendors in Begusarai, Lakhisarai and Siwan districts blocked roads, staged sit-in protests and shouted slogans.

In Begusarai, protesters blocked Traffic Chowk demanding that they be allowed to open their shops and businesses. They said most traders, shopkeepers and street vendors were on the verge of hunger, as there only source of livelihood was at a standstill.

“We will abide by all guidelines that the administration will give. During the past five months since first lockdown began in March, earnings and businesses have crashed. We have no other means to survive”, Raghvender Singh, a businessman said.

Bus owners have also decided to stage protests against no permission to ply their vehicles during the lockdown.

In Lakhisarai, traders have blocked roads of Naya Bazar and Purnani Bazar Chowk for hours, demanding permission to open shops. They shouted slogans against the state government and the local administration.

“We have been pushed to the verge of hunger due to the lockdown, our business, which is our livelihood, is zero,” said Shayam Charan Gupta, a shopkeeper.

Protesting traders said that they would continue their protest against the “forced” lockdown.

In Siwan, too, traders and shopkeepers came out in protests against permission for some shops to open, while others were ask to close down during the lockdown.

In Patna, traders and shopkeepers said the lockdown was “unnecessary”.

“The government has extended lockdown to downplay its own failure to control COVID. Till a month ago, the government was sleeping instead of ramping up testing rate and increasing beds in hospitals. Lockdown is not a solution, it is killing our livelihood,” said Rakesh Sharma, who owns an electronic gadgets shop.

According to the official Twitter handle of the Health Department, on August 18, there were 3,257 new cases in Bihar, taking the total number of cases to 1,09,875. Most of these cases were reported in the past two weeks.

Till July 27, Bihar had 41,111 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which has crossed one lakh, and on August 15, based on the fact on an average 3,000 new cases have been reported per day since the past week.

Bihar Health Secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh, however, maintains that the number of COVID cases are rising as testing has increased. ”The department is increasing testing as per instructions of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar”, he says.

Till date Bihar has tested 1787189 samples.