Nepal National Traders' Federation has welcomed the decision made by the local administrations of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur to recommend the government to ease the lockdown restrictions for traders.

The chief district officers of the three districts in Kathmandu Valley had held an emergency meeting to discuss ways to ease the lockdown after the traders in different parts of the Valley opened their shops and businesses on Thursday morning.

“All three CDOs are positive about allowing shops and businesses to open for certain hours, preferably between eight to eleven in the morning. They have forwarded this recommendation to the Home Ministry,” Anjan Shakya, general secretary of the federation, told the Post.

“We hope that the ministry will consider the recommendation and allow us to resume our businesses.”

The federation has assured to adhere to the social distancing rule and other health and safety guidelines.

Around 10,000 Valley traders are affiliated with the federation.

The government on Saturday had extended the nationwide lockdown for additional two weeks until May 14 in view of the rising number of Covid-19 infections and fatalities.

The federation has been asking the government to let the businesses open, as hundreds of thousands of businessmen and traders have been facing financial loss due to prolonged lockdown.

“We have forwarded the concerns of the traders to the government,” Hemkala Pandey, chief district officer at Bhaktapur, told the Post. “I am hopeful that the government will lift the lockdown restrictions on shops and businesses.”

According to the federation, nearly 30 percent of shops and businesses were opened on Thursday morning following the federation’s call to defy the lockdown.

“We patiently obeyed the lockdown rules by closing our businesses for the past 75 days. But we have families to look after, rents to pay and not to mention the loans over our heads,” Rakesh Kothari,who runs a mobile phone shop in New Road, said. “The government has also issued a decree to pay the taxes at the earliest. How can we pay the taxes when we have not been doing any business for months?”