Pune : The Maharashtra government on Sunday announced that all shops in Pune and PimpriChinchwad will remain open from 7 am to 8 pm on weekdays (Monday to Saturday). The decision was taken in a high-level meeting attended by state Deputy Chief Minister and Pune’s Guardian Minister AjitPawar to review the Covid-19 situation and guidelines related to it. The order will be effective from August 9.

Since the past few days, the trader bodies in Pune city and even employees of shopping malls were demanding that shops and other establishments be allowed to remain open till 8 pm instead of 4 pm. Pune Mayor MurlidharMohol on Sunday took to Twitter and informed about the relaxations given to the traders.Earlier in the day, Mohol tweeted in Marathi that the Pune Municipal Corpration’s (PMC) Covid-19 positivity rate has dropped to 2.88 per cent and people have demanded Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to relax the coronavirus-induced restrictions in the city.

WHAT’S OPEN IN PUNE

• All hotels, restaurants allowed to operate with 50 per cent seating capacity till 10pm on all days.

• Malls allowed to remain open on all days till 8 pm with entry only to those who are fully vaccinated.

• The hotels can remain opened till 10 pm.

• All such services are allowed till 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Even BJP leader and former chief minister of Maharashtra DevendraFadnavis had also said that restrictions on account of the Covid-19 pandemic in Pune should be relaxed as they are affecting businesses and commerce. “There should be strict restrictions in the cities where the infection positivity rate is above five per cent. But for the last one month, Pune’s positivity rate is below five per cent. The state government should relax restrictions. Businesses are already suffering losses," he had told reporters.