The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shops to open seven days a week

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Shops to open seven days a week

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 2. In a bid to stagger the peak hours and promote the concept of night shopping, the Delhi Government is understood to have finalised the proposal for granting permission to all shops and commercial establishments to operate seven days a week and remain open until late in the night. However, these establishments would be required to honour all labour laws regarding late working of their staff especially women employees.

The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today declared that the Government would issue a notification soon and the Labour Department was working out details for protecting the interests of employees. In her meeting with a delegation of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by its president, Ravi Wig, Ms. Dikshit said the Government was all for liberalised regime but cautioned that the interests of employees would not be allowed to be compromised.

The Chief Minister said shops and commercial establishments would have to adhere to the provisions of labour laws regarding total working hours of the employees, rest interval, working in shifts and weekly off day by rotation. She assured that any changes required in the labour laws to facilitate this step would be recommended to the Central Government so as to promote trade and commerce in Delhi. The proposal comes close on the heels of another decision of the Delhi Government to introduce the night bazaar concept in the Walled City. The Government is keen to promote night bazaars in order to boost tourism in the Capital and the first such project is expected to take off in October in Chandni Chowk. At the same time, Ms. Dikshit said the trade associations concerned would have to take permission from the Labour Department in order to ensure proper compliance as far as welfare of the staff was concerned.

So far, the State Government has been granting exemption to individual shops on case-to-case basis regarding opening and closing hours and seven-day operation. During his meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr. Wig pointed out that trade assumes special importance for Delhi as there was limited scope for growth of industry here. The general permission would result in more employment opportunities in the trade sector. The sector had tremendous potential for generation of additional income, creation of additional jobs particularly for the unemployed youth, higher tax collection for the State and overall prosperity.

In response to the suggestion made by Mr. Wig that the maintenance and upkeep of 28 approved industrial areas be handed over to autonomous bodies, Ms. Dikshit said the Government proposed to bring these industrial areas under the supervision of the Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation. She informed that the Government was also working out schemes for low cost housing complexes for industrial workers in order to prevent the growth of slums in industrial areas.

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