New Delhi, Apr 7 (KNN) Reacting over the Maharashtra government's lockdown decision and Delhi government's decision to impose a night curfew in Delhi starting from Tuesday, the traders' body CAIT has written to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the same.

In its letter to the Home Minister, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged that each state should not take independent steps regarding COVID but follow the guidelines of the Central Government as was done last year. Taking up a centralized plan which should be made only after the consultation with all the state governments so that uniformity is maintained throughout the country.

''If every state takes steps at its own level, economic activities in the country will be severely affected due to which there is a possibility of huge loss to business and economy,'' it added.

On the issue of Delhi, CAIT sent a letter to the Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal and the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, requesting that before any decision be taken, a meeting with the traders should be convened to consider the strategy to curb the COVID cases. The traders of Delhi are with the government and they are ready for every possible help of the government in this war against Corona.

CAIT also raised the question of how it is possible to curb the outbreak by imposing the night curfew in Delhi.

CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal that the night curfew will directly affect the restaurants, hotels, banquets, and farmhouse businesses operating in Delhi, which are already fighting for their survival due to the previous lock-down.

''In the last one year, all these sectors had to suffer a huge loss of business and now when they are slowly recovering from their previous losses, the night curfew is being forced on them which will ruin them further,'' they added.

The duo further said that the month of April is full of festivals. The festivals like Ramnoumi, Baisakhi, Navratri, Gudi Padwa, Hanuman Jayanti are not only special for the people but also important for the financial strength of the recession-prone traders.

Apart from this, most of the families of Delhi get free from their office late in the evening and only then the markets of Delhi grow bright, so there will be a double hit of business on the locality shops and markets.

Both leaders suggested that COVID hotspots need to be identified rather than complete lockdown and strategies should be made in different phases for those areas.

They also said that it is necessary to get more and more tests done, on the basis of which a strategy of isolation and treatment needs to be chalked out. Additional efforts may be made to maintain the COVID security protocol at all levels in collaboration with trade organizations.

The entry and exit points of each market can be regulated by the respective trade unions with additional monitoring and deployment of ward staff, they said.