SHILLONG, June 8: More than a month and counting, shops in Iewduh, the biggest commercial hub of Meghalaya, have been under lock and key owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown which is now starting to take a toll on the livelihood of thousands of shopkeepers besides roadside hawkers at the market.
Empathising with the struggling lot of businessmen and simple traders, West Shillong MLA Mohendro Rapsang has called upon the government to come up with a decision which would keep COVID-19 at bay, while at the same time ensure that the livelihood of people is not affected. “We will wait till June 14, and after that, we will ask the government to take some measures for reopening of shops” Mohendro Rapsang said.
The MLA was of the view that different options like opening of shops on odd-even basis can be worked out in Iewduh, and according to him, shopkeepers would follow all relevant protocols as was done last year.
Rapsang even narrated the sufferings of many shopkeepers and hawkers dependent on Iewduh for their survival, who reached out to him as they were going through difficulties. A shoe trader says that soon after the market was closed, he was forced to work with an online food delivery business to look after his family.
Echoing similar sentiments, a vegetable vendor said that the last one and half month has been the toughest period of her life as she had to make ends meet despite not earning a rupee.
Like them, majority of the people whose livelihood has been affected this year, have been left to fend for themselves as the government time and again communicated to the public about the difficulty it was facing in providing relief to the people.
Apart from shopkeepers and business people, local cabbies have also taken a beating of the COVID-19 while government assistance for them is apparently consigned to oblivion.
Cabbies’ trials
Meghalaya Joint Action Committee of Commercial Vehicle (MJACCV) chairman, Wandonbok Jyrwa, said that as many as 6,000 taxi drivers in East Khasi Hills and around 25,000 cabbies in the entire state are in trials and tribulations as their earnings have been hampered. “The lockdown was called suddenly and many of our drivers were not prepared,” he said.
Jyrwa maintained that the government should give them some assistance as they have been very prompt in paying their taxes.
“Even the Labour department which took 500 from us has not given us any relief in this tough time,” Jyrwa said.
