4 paan shops sealed, 480 close ‘voluntarily’

Ahmedabad: After the targeting of tea stalls where social distancing was not being followed, paan shops were again the target of the civic authorities on Friday. After news of paan shops being targeting spread, the owners of some 480 paan shops decided to down shutters on their own.

Harshad Solanki, the director of the AMC’s solid waste department which is enforcing such drives, said that after targeting tea stalls where no social distancing was followed his teams decided to check on paan shops. As news of four paan shops being sealed spread, others started closing their paan shops.

Interestingly, these enforcing AMC teams along with paan shop owners also put up posters that the shops were closed voluntarily, said Solanki. Solanki said the most paan shops that closed voluntarily were in Jodhpur, Bopal-Ghuma, Sarkhej and Vejalpur.

Officials said those standing at such shops and either not following social distancing or were not wearing masks were fined and a total of Rs 1.54 lakh was collected. In the past, a similar drive against paan shops was taken up and hefty fines were imposed but following a representation to the ruling party the drive was slowed down.