|THE DEN|
April 6
Night Curfew in Delhi
Daily Cases - 5,100
April 16
Weekend Curfew in Delhi
Daily Cases - 19,486
April 20
One Week Lockdown in Delhi
Daily Cases - 28,395
April 26
Another Week Lockdown in Delhi
Daily Cases - 20,200
3,79,604 workers left Delhi
May 3
Another Week Lockdown in Delhi
Daily Cases - 18,043
2,12,448 workers left Delhi
May 10
Another Week Lockdown in Delhi
Daily Cases - 12,561
1,22,490 workers left Delhi
May 17
Another Week Lockdown in Delhi
Daily Cases - 4,524
92, 490 workers left Delhi
May 24
Another Week Lockdown in Delhi
Daily Cases - 1,550
Workers start returning in hopes of
ease of lockdown
May 31
Another Week Lockdown in Delhi (Construction &
Manufacturing allowed)
Daily Cases - 648
Shops still closed, no way to carry out the permitted
activities
June 7
Construction sites : Allowed
Factories : Allowed
Shops in Markets : Odd-even 10 am - 8 pm
Shops in Malls : Odd-even 10 am - 8 pm
Private Offices : 50% capacity
Grade 1 GoV Offices : 100% capacity
Non Grade 1 GoV Offices : 50% capacity
Restaurants : Take away & Delivery
Liquor Shops : Odd-even
Public Transport : 50% capacity
The Workers’ Regret
Starting from night curfews to locking down weekends, Delhi’s cases almost touched 30,000 daily. Pertaining to the experience of last year’s lockdown, workers started flocking out of Delhi. 8,07,032 workers left Delhi in 4 weeks of lockdown. With no jobs, they saw no other
option, but those who did not leave in the beginning had nothing but regrets after being fooled in the hopes of ease in restrictions within a week. Those who left in the fourth week, had even further regrets of not leaving in time and those who returned had regrets of not staying further in their hometowns.
In the second wave, 1.25 lakh crores were withdrawn from Employment Provident Fund by 35 million workers just to manage their expenses in absence of earnings.
Even in the absence of earnings in a tanking economy, politics in Delhi did not rest. On May 31, construction and manufacturing activities were permitted to resume. Low positivity rate and negligible new daily cases warranted opening of shops that are non essential, BJP led opposition blamed it on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s reluctance in opening shops and playing with the livelihood of people. Aam Aadmi Party’s Manish Sisodia blamed it on Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who being the Chairman of Department Of Delhi Disaster Management Authority did not authorise opening of shops in the Capital. The Lieutenant Governor, in return released the meeting’s agenda in which there was no mention of opening of shops.
All that came of the political bickering was Delhi staying in a lockdown stage with shops closed and livelihoods still under threat. With the expectation of third wave in the near future, and no moratorium, survival for Delhi’s shop owners is under grave threat and could bring a catastrophic stage of widespread bankruptcies which our economy is in no stage to survive.
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