Second Covid-19 wave: Night curfew pushes Patiala biz to the brink

Patiala, a usually bustling city, wears a deserted look on a recent weekend evening. With 30 minutes to go before the 9 o’clock curfew deadline, the police begin to go around the city’s famous jutti (shoe) market, asking shopkeepers to down their shutters. Several parts of the market are barricaded and the police stop people from entering the area. 

Akash Singh, 25, tries to enter a local dhaba 10 minutes before the curfew hour. “Sirf pack hoga (only packed food is available),” the man at the counter tells him, refusing to let him in.

Singh asks for the menu, as the men in uniform saunter in, checking to see if the eatery is still serving customers at the tables. “Chicken curry, butter chicken, chicken do pyaza…” the waiter drones on. Stopping him mid-sentence, Singh says, “Pack a chicken curry and five tandoori naans” — clearly relieved he is going to get a meal, even though Patiala is about to slip into its night curfew. 

The sudden spike in Covid cases in Patiala — one among seven districts which have 73 per cent of Punjab’s total active cases — has affected the vibrant nightlife of Patialvis. The crowds on the streets making merry on weekend evenings are absent. One can easily drive through the Adalat Bazaar area, which is chock-full with people most evenings.   

Gurpal Singh, a truck driver, misses a Patiala peg of his favourite tipple at night. The curfew has put paid to the weekend parties with his mates.

The night curfew is also taking a toll on Patiala’s businesses. The hospitality sector, which was gradually picking up after the lockdown, is one among many that is feeling the heat. In fact, the sector has taken a 70 per cent hit due to the curfew.

Says Surender Virdi, the owner of Hotel Amar and Restaurant, “The daily billing has now come down from Rs 10,000 to Rs 3,000. Our business starts around 7 pm and winds up by midnight. So the 9 pm deadline is cutting our profits to the bone.” 

Street food vendors, dairymen, liquor shop owners, shopkeepers, and labourers have also been severely hit by the curfew.  

Suresh Kumar, 45, a migrant shoe tree maker from Agra, has been waiting desperately for days for an order. “We have stock, but no one is buying,” he says teary-eyed. 

Kumar came to Patiala two months ago in the hope of earning enough money to pay back his Rs 80,000-debt, which he had taken during the 10 months he spent in his village without any work because of the Covid-19 lockdown. “Had the curfew not happened, I could have earned a little more by working nights. But now that is not possible. How will I pay my debts?” he asks. 

For Kumar, and hundreds of labourers like him, the festival season means more sales and joy, but this Holi, there will be little to celebrate. 

The only glimmer of hope at this time has come from industrial manufacturing. This sector is unaffected by the curfew as the factory night shift starts before 9 pm and ends after 5 am, and so can operate as usual.

“The night curfew is fine. In fact, it helps us, as no worker will go out to consume liquor or tobacco and waste time,” says Vijay Bansal, director, Bansal Alloys & Metals, in Mandi Gobindgarh, which is known as the steel city of Punjab. 

Mandi Gobindgarh, Asia’s largest steel industry cluster with more than 500 medium- and small-sized steel and iron scrap recycling industries, employs more than 100,000 workers.

Mohinder Gupta, president of the Induction Furnace Association Mandi Gobindgarh, agrees with Bansal. However, he is quick to assert that “the government should stick to curfews and not go for a lockdown. Otherwise, our businesses will suffer”.

Economic indicators suggest that the worst is over as far as the economic fallout of the pandemic is concerned. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation data, India’s gross domestic product expanded 0.4 per cent in the October-December quarter, compared to the same period in the previous year. But the new wave of Covid infections could hamper the country’s economic recovery — although a Nomura report has ruled out the possibility of long-term pain. 

But for Rinku Singla, the proprietor of Mohit Agarwal liquor franchise, and one who owns more than 20 wine shops in Patiala, Nomura’s findings make little sense. The ever-changing Covid-19 scenario has put his business on the brink. “Sales were already down 20 per cent. Now the curfew has caused it to decline 40 per cent,” he laments. “If the cases continue to rise, the shops will shut,” he adds dejectedly.

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