Merchants in Kerala vow to open all shops from Thursday

Showdown between traders’ forum and police in Kozhikode

The face-off between a section of merchants and the police at S.M. Street in Kozhikode on Monday morning, in full view of television cameras, reflected the concerns of traders across the State whose livelihood is hit by the ongoing pandemic-induced restrictions. The Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES) has now said that its members would open shops from Thursday in line with the protocol across the State. Samithi leaders T. Nazirudeen and Raju Apsara said that even after submitting various representations to the State government, the authorities were not allowing them to run their business. They claimed that traders had not been able to run shops for the past two months and many were on the brink of suicide. Indications of a showdown, however, were evident by Sunday evening. KVVES functionaries had said that traders, whose livelihood was at stake, should not be seen as “violators of law” if they were forced to open their shops. Mr. Raju Apsara had said that the current method of daily test positivity rate-based restrictions was unscientific. “People will come out in large numbers and the infection will spread if shops are closed for more number of days and then opened for a few days. If traders take to the streets, our organisation may not be able to control them,” he had said.