ahmedabadgandhinagar gujarat traders across four major cities began to rejoice at the reopening of their shops selling nonessential items early on sunday but their joy was soon shuttered mobile phone stores hardware shops stationery stores utensil stores and apparel stores opened in ahmedabad vadodara surat and rajkot on sunday morning they were ordered to close by afternoon the streets which were bustling with people in the morning were soon desertedon saturday evening the state government allowed shops in gujarat to reopen following a union home ministry order issued on fridayafter detailed deliberation with municipal commissioners of all four major cities it was decided that only the shops selling essential items would be allowed to remain open said ashwani kumar the secretary to gujarat chief minister vijay rupani the decision was taken given the severity of the outbreak in these cities shops selling nonessential items will therefore remain closed till may 3during his address through social media on sunday evening rupani confirmed that based on the situation next week an appropriate decision will be taken about the matter while the governments sudden uturn left citizens and traders confused the business community has welcomed and supported the decision we understand the concerns over increasing cases and the need for enforcing necessary social distancing said jayendra tanna president gujarat trader federation gtf therefore about 35 trade associations across ahmedabad have supported the government decision and voluntarily agreed to keep their establishments and shops closed till may 3immediately after the decision to allow dealers of nonessential items to resume business was revoked trade associations issued letters urging membersto keep shops shut till may 3