DW BUREAU / chandigarh Shopkeepers in Mohali in Punjab on Saturday defied the weekend lockdown restrictions while traders at Gurdaspur held a protest against the state government's decision of closure of shops dealing in non-essential items on Saturdays and Sundays. The Punjab government on August 31 had announced to continue weekend lockdown and night curfew from 7 pm till 5 am in all the 167 cities of the state, amid rising coronavirus cases and death toll from the disease. Shops or malls, except those dealing in essential commodities, would be allowed to remain open till 6.30 pm from Monday to Friday but would be closed in all cities on Saturdays and Sundays, it had said. The decision was taken in due consultation with the Centre. The Centre had on August 29 asked state governments that they would not impose any local lockdown outside the containment zones without prior consultation with the central government. Several shopkeepers, dealing in non-essential commodities, at Phase-7 in Mohali district on Saturday opened shops despite weekend lockdown being in force. They said they have been suffering losses for the past several months due to COVID-19 and the state government's latest move of continuing with the weekend lockdown would deal a severe blow to their businesses. "Traders are being harassed," alleged Sarabjit Singh, general secretary of Mohali Beopar Mandal. He questioned the logic of the state government's decision of continuing with weekend lockdown when the Chandigarh Union Territory administration has already discontinued weekend closure of shops. "Is coronavirus spreading just because of shops? Such thinking is unfortunate," said Singh. They lamented that by allowing shops till 6:30 pm with eight days closure in a month, how could a shopkeeper bear fixed expenses like electricity charges, workers' salary and shop rent. They also rued that restaurants, hotels and liquor shops had been allowed. They demanded that weekend lockdown should be rolled back. Meanwhile, several shopkeepers in Gurdaspur staged a protest in front of the residence of Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ishfaq. Raising slogans against the state government, they demanded that all shops should be allowed to open on weekends. They said they would hand over the keys of their shops if their demands were not met. Andhra Pradesh for the third time in a row has topped in the ease of doing annual business ranking of states and Union Territories by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The ranking is based on the implementation of the business reform action plan 2019 by states and UTs, according to a report of Finance Ministry. (editor@dailyworld.in)