Due to the fight against the spread of coronavirus, from March 24, many shopping facilities in India were closed for quarantine. But gradually, these measures began to weaken, and from May 4, small establishments and shops were allowed to resume their operations.
However, the social distance was not an easy task for citizens, and long queues began to gather in front of liquor stores, where the gap between people was utterly impossible. Videos with such lines even managed to flood social networks.
At the same time, the opening of stores had to be carried out according to strict rules. In particular, there should be no more than five people inside the room, and the distance between them should not be less than 1.8 meters. As these rules were often not followed, the police had to intervene and close down individual shops only a few hours after they started working. Several shops in Delhi and other cities in the country were again shut down.
In many Indian states, the authorities are seeking to relax quarantine measures and reopen trade and businesses, as the slowdown in economic processes is already beginning to hurt the overall financial situation in the country. The opening of liquor stores, in particular, was one of the first steps towards easing quarantine measures. One of the reasons for this is that in some states, the excise duty on alcohol is the main source of income.
