Kalaburagi which had hit the national headlines after it reported country’s first Covid-19 death in the last March, is limping back to normalcy with several business establishments being opened on Monday after the lockdown 5.0 came into force.

Kalaburagi was the first city in the State to be locked down before the nation-wide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

The City was locked down from March 14 and prohibitory order under Section 144 of CrPC was imposed by the district administration since March 19 to prevent the gathering of people in public
places.

Since mid-March, business activities were paused in the City which was the revenue division of Kalyana Karnataka.

The City wore a deserted look after the locked down. After about 75 days into the lockdown, the business activities came alive on Monday with several business establishments opened the shutters. Supermarket, the main business centre, was teeming with the people after a gap of two-and-half months. The public were seen wandering freely in the City.

Prabhudas Basude, proprietor of Vyshnavi Silks told DH that they do good business in two months-April and May-as they are marriage and festival seasons.

Anticipating good business as farmers had a bumper crop this time, we had stocked materials this year. “Novel coronavirus snatched away from our business as the shop was closed since March 14 to stem the spread of the virus. I suffered a business loss of around Rs 40,000 a day since the lockdown. The establishment was opened on June 1. Let us hope for the best,” he explained.

Devaraj Kulkarni, a partner of Sri Venkatesh Automotives in Gazipura, said their hero automobiles has remained shut since March 16. It could not be opened on Monday also as Gazipura is a containment zone.

The automobile industry has suffered a lot after the lockdown. Finance companies should also be opened to do business. Last two months were a season and we were to sale around 2500 two-wheelers in both Gulbarga and Yadgir districts. We lost business, he said.

Anand Dandoti who owns Anand Wholesale Cloth Company said, “We paid the full salary of March to labourers. But now I have decided to pay 50% of the salary due to loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. “I suffered a business loss of Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh a day in April and May,” he explained.