Citing steep dip in income amid COVID-19 norms, dhaba owners curtail manpower, street vendors head home from Delhi

New Delhi [India], January 12 (ANI): Amid several COVID-19 restrictions in place to contain the spread of the disease, Delhi's dhaba owners have scaled down their manpower while street vendors are once again heading back to their native states.
Several dhaba owners and street vendors that ANI spoke to claimed that their income has decreased by 2-6 per cent since the COVID restrictions came into effect again.
In an effort to curb the rise of coronavirus cases in the national capital, Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) restricted restaurants and eateries to take away only, however dhaba owners says "lockdown would have been better than this order."
While speaking to ANI dhaba owners at several places in Delhi said that with private offices closing down, they are again struggling to make ends meet because they hardly get any customers.
The dhaba owners say they are forced to restort to curtailing manpower following zero business in the national capital.
Rajesh who owns a dhaba at Mandi House said, "This is a major office hub in Delhi. If the government closes down offices and ask the employees to work from home how can we get continue with the business? It would have been much better if government would have asked us to close down too till offices are not functioning properly."
Lalit Sharma, owner of Vaishno Dhaba said, "Our peak time starts from 1 pm and continues till 3:30 pm but since last two days we could do only two per cent of our businesses. Earlier before COVID we had 18 men, then it reduced to eight. Now we have only three. What can we do? We have to pay the salary, the rent, the electricity there is no exemption for us, how will we pay?"
A lot of vendors who used to sell lunch in their carts in Delhi are facing a tough time.
Many said that since the beginning of third COVID wave they could not sell even a single plate of lunch and owing to various restrictions and situations they had to wrap up their businesses.
One Ramniwas, who sells lunch items near Ashoka Road said, "I am going back to my village Etawah in UP today. Will come back once this wave ends. I am not in a state to spend even rupees 10 unnecessarily."
Before this DDMA allowed restaurants and bars to operate at 50 per cent seating capacity.
Delhi follows Rajashthan and Maharashtra in the number of COVID-19 cases reported. (ANI)