Well it’s that time when another extension has been announced as part of the fight against the Covid virus. The lock down is needed to ensure there is no crowding of people in public areas. However it has been disastrous for business outlets. Is it then time to consider the possibility of allocating times to businesses based on the ground realities of that industry? Could a restaurant serving breakfast open at 7 o clock in the morning and then shut at 7o clock in the evening? Or for that matter a restaurant opening at 12 o clock for lunch stay open till 11 or 12 midnight. They would of course all follow the SOPS’s laid down by the government. Members of industry as well as those from the hospitality industry had interesting views.
Damodar Kochkar President, Goa State Industries Association said industry had convinced the government during the second wave that they would follow all the SOPS and they would ensure the cases would not increase due to the operation of these outlets. He said “We started our testing centre and we formulated sops for industry. They were even upheld by the High court when objections were raised. However when all this was being done there were no representation from restaurants. The Chamber wanted a complete lock down and it became difficult to fight as GISA.” He went on to say that everyone had to understand that this virus was here to stay. The restaurants would have to present a paper to the government as to how they intended to operate in such conditions. Perhaps they could shift tables and keep tables for families separate. They would then have to convince the government it would be followed. That he said was the only way forward.
Megh Netravalkar Partner at Kismoor a restaurant in Sangolda felt the curfew timings should be specific to the type of restaurant and the space they operate in ie whether they air conditioned / open air. He felt the suggestion of 50% occupancy should be maintained overall for all. Megh said “Restaurants will be motivated with the 2 hours of extension. We are losing almost 10% of operational time and facing revenue losses for which we are paying full rent and salaries currently”.
Jack Sukhija, Hotelier said “As long as you work with 50 percent capacity with masking and social distancing timing does not make a difference. It is also important that staff and customers be vaccinated as vaccination reduces the severity of COVID. It is however imperative that businesses open as otherwise it is difficult to survive. However health concerns are also important.”
Savio Messias another hotelier felt the timing restrictions did not make any sense to him. He said “You introduce compulsory production of Covid certificates in bar and restaurants and restrict admission. You have to also insist on SOP/s like number of people.”
Blaise Costabir former head of CII and businessman said he did not understand the logic of the timings. How would restaurants manage paying staff and keeping open till 7 pm which was a time normally considered as opening time. He said “How does corona know these timings and thus not infect before but would after 7. Timings should be industry specific. Restaurants cannot have the same timings as a Kirana stores. Capacity restrictions to reduce crowding make more sense”.
Pravin Kakode a player in the building supplies business said “Assuming the third wave is anticipated and looking at the way we are dropping guard and throwing caution to the wind we are almost working hard to welcoming it. Having said that the MSME are a distressed lot and many are on the brink of bankruptcy. I think Government should definitely take a sympathetic pragmatic view of sector specific business requirements and layout the steps, as one size fit all would not work. I have always been of the opinion that government should allow unlimited or rather encourage business to operate for longer hours” This he said would allow customers have a large time window and not rush to outlets. He said it was important that in a situation like this, people needed to behave responsibly with proper protocol and social distancing to avert the disaster.
Another major personality in industry circles, Sandip Bhandare former President of GCCI said the government was looking for a calibrated opening. He said on Sunday he read that around 6 people had died and there 100 new infections. Fear he said was still there due to the virus. Freedom, he felt would certainly result in excess. He said “We are talking of 3rd wave and the delta variant is dangerous for children. The government is waiting and watching. Today we can go to the restaurants till 7 or 8. The specifics can be debated. I think in the next 15 days we will be able to see more freedom if the virus is receding”. With the festival season around the corner, he felt it would make sense to be careful because it would also mark the start of the tourism season.
A member of the digital world, Jason Fernandes, Founder, Tokenjay.com said he was not sure what effect the timings have really other than to generally reduce the number of people that are likely to be out at any given time. He said “Its not like the Covid virus takes evenings off. To that end I think 9 PM is a reasonable compromise. Having restaurants stay open till 12 will encourage the night life and partying and that is not responsible to do in the midst of a pandemic”. He ended by saying that inconvenient as this may be for many people, new variants were coming out with some regularity and it’s just not safe to go back to normal yet.
Well perhaps the time for decisions is here and the government will have to take a calibrated decision and ensure, industries do not suffer and people lose their jobs. Time will tell us how it all works out.
