GUWAHATI: The All Assam Restaurant Association (AARA) has appealed to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allow restaurants and other amenities to operate till 2 am.
Owing to the surge in Covid-19 positive cases in the state, the government had enforced some restrictions a few months ago as a result of which restaurants and food joints have suffered huge losses.
Eventually, the government relaxed some of the restrictions and increased the timing of the closure of restaurants up to 6 pm.
However, people are seemingly avoiding dining out to prevent the risk of getting infected by the disease. As per restaurant owners in Guwahati, the food business is down by 80-90 percent since the lockdown and many famous food chains have shut down permanently.
Ranabir Kar, Vice-president said that the AARA believes that if the restaurants and food stalls are allowed to operate all night in adherence to Covid protocols, this would go a long way to revive the economy and would also ensure that illegal activities during the night get minimized. He said, if restaurants are allowed to operate at least till 2 am, then it would also help the economy. In Guwahati, traffic jam has always been a serious issue, and if commercial activities get some more hours to operate, it would somehow help mitigate that issue to some extent as then customers would have more time to go out and shop. And it would also attract investors in the future from other parts of the country as well, as mobilization during the late-night would lead to lesser crimes and illegal activities during night time."
The representatives of the All Assam Restaurant Association (AARA) also appealed to the CM to help restaurant owners with financial aid by offering them a soft collateral loan so that they could survive this testing time with the government's intervention. The CM has assured them that he'd look into it but that of course depends on the bank authorities as well. On behalf of the AARA, apart from Vice-president Ranabir Kar, the meeting was also attended by its President Chef Atul Lahakar, General Secretary Manjit Kalita among others.
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