The Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries has urged the state government to allow shopping malls to open and operate.

“Since the government allowed many other trading activities to function gradually, it is high time they also allowed the shopping malls to do so,” the apex trade body of the state said after its meeting with representatives of the malls from Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro on Friday.

“The malls in the state have been closed for the past five months since the lockdown was announced. They should now be allowed to function as some states have already done so,” said federation president Kunal Ajmani.

“The malls are huge and they consist of a large number of shops and showrooms that are actually much smaller than many showrooms of renowned brands that have been allowed to function,” he said, emphasising the point that the shops would not attract big crowds and social distancing norms could be easily followed.

“The businessmen opened their shops in malls after taking loans from banks. They have to pay the EMI again from September for repayment of their loans as the relief would expire this month,” Ajmani said. He said they also have to bear certain establishment costs and pay their staff.

“Coronavirus may not go away overnight but the economy has to be brought back on track,” he said.

“Many trading activities have already been allowed and the remaining few should also be considered without further delay,” said federation general secretary Dheeraj Taneja.

“Buses, hotels, malls, cinema halls, saloons and spas are the few things that have not been allowed to operate and the businessmen running these services can no longer bear the loss they have been incurring due to the closure,” he said.

Taneja said the remaining services and businesses should now be allowed to open so that the owners can at least try to move forward.

“The businessmen are surely suffering but no one has ever thought about how we can survive,” said Rohan Sharma who runs a saloon near Main Road overbridge which can accommodate only two customers at a time. He said people like him could not afford to keep their shops shut any longer.

“Many of them (barbers) are visiting their regular customers at their homes to offer their services,” he said when asked how they could continue for the past 5 months.

“It’s true they are suffering a lot,” said Taneja. He said customers must be getting hair cuts at home as not many can do without it for such a long time.

Some may have also got their hair cut with help from their family members but their number may not be too large, suggesting most others must have availed the service of barbers at home.