Mumbai: After almost 72 days of lockdown, the country's financial capital, Mumbai, began to attempt a return to normalcy on Friday, June 5, by setting in motion some important activities. With the Maharashtra government allowing shops and markets in commercial zones to operate, on an odd-even basis, as part of Unlock 1.0, many shops and retail outlets opened on Wednesday. However, in keeping with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's injunction, asking people to step out cautiously and adhere to social distancing norms, many shops had marked pitches around their premises to ensure that patrons were in compliance.
Raj Damle opened his novelty store in Kandivli for the first time after the lockdown. He said, that preparatory to reopening, he had sanitised his shop premises with bleaching powder and disinfectants and is abiding by the government's social distancing and no-return policy. "I have opened my shop after more than two months, have sanitised and disinfected it and will abide by the rules set up by the administration," he averred.
However, not every shopowner has followed suit. Some of them are preferring to 'wait and see' first, instead of swinging back to normalcy in one go. "If I restart my business, I will have to call back my workers who live in the outskirts of the city and if the civic officials close down everything suddenly, like they did the last time, my employees will once again
