Traders miffed with CM BS Yediyurappa’s sudden call for lockdown

Bengaluru: Chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s announcement of a complete lockdown in Bengaluru for a week from July 14 caught people, especially the business community, off guard. Traders said another week of lockdown would hamper the resumption of economic activities that were slowly picking up following the nationwide unlock.
The CM had given indications about not announcing another lockdown, although Covid-19 cases were increasing rapidly in Bengaluru and the rest of Karnataka. He had repeatedly said that economic activity was the state’s priority and that his government was prepared to handle the pandemic.

Six days ago, Yediyurappa had even appealed to people, who were leaving the city fearing another lockdown, to stay back. “We have to learn to live with the virus by taking necessary precautionary measures,” he had said.

However, on Saturday, the CM took a U-turn announcing a week-long lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, which he said was in view of the sudden surge in Covid cases in the city and on the advice of experts.

Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) called the government’s decision an “extremely regressive step”.

“We strongly urge the government not to bring industries under the scope of the lockdown. This re-lockdown of industries will paralyse the morale of both management and workforce, and impose back-breaking losses on the vulnerable MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector, which has seen a shutdown at the rate of nearly 30%,” BCIC president Devesh Agarwal said in a press release. He said industries had put in a lot of effort and resources to inch up after the previous lockdowns and the situation was getting better with GST collection nearly back to pre-lockdown levels.

Deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan said the lockdown was a temporary measure to slow down the spread of Covid-19 and to prepare the system to handle the increase in the number of cases.

Health commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said in a series of tweets that a well-followed lockdown can suppress the spread of the pandemic. “Lockdown mitigates the demand on healthcare, reducing the likely options and mediums for the virus to spread. It reduces the chances of the vulnerable population being exposed to the risk of spread,” he said.

A senior official said that in a recent meeting with the CM, all members of the expert committee, except one, were in favour of lockdown. “Chennai went into lockdown when the case doubling rate was 12 days. Bengaluru’s doubling rate is seven days and it was increasingly becoming difficult to manage when the number of cases reported on a day has reached almost 1,500,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.

The government is hoping to have a well-oiled machinery including hospital beds in place in 10 days, by which time it expects the number of cases to drop. “We are hoping to reach a situation where our system is ahead of the Covid growth,” said the official.