new delhi though shops selling nonessential goods were allowed to open on monday owing to relaxations in lockdown 30 most such traders shied away from opening their establishments only 1020 shops of tailors mobile repair electrical goods and bookstores were found runningwhile shops in planned neighbourhoods like greater kailash jangpura defence colony kalkaji and vasant vihar remained closed those in the inner lanes of urban villages and unauthorised colonies where distinctions between market and nonmarket areas is hard chose to open their shuttersin east delhi police had to intervene to prevent crowding in areas like geeta colony and gandhi nagar where a large number of shops in residential areas had opened sonu yadav a local resident said even property dealers had opened their offices in the morning but police shut them in the afternooninterestingly despite paan shops being allowed to open between 7am and 7pm almost everyone chose to remain shut pandit rajan who sells tobacco products near jnu campus said most sellers squat along the main road as traffic movement is low there are hardly any buyers i started selling vegetables last month cigarettes give me a better profit margin but its unsafe to sell them i will see how things turn up in the next few days he addedpawan kumar a paanwallah in south delhis green park said even though he is scared of getting infected he is glad to finally make it to work my savings have dwindled so it is important for me to resume work to sustain my family i didnt get many customers but im sure everything will become normal soon he addedas most office complexes at barakhamba road nehru place and bhikaji cama place remained closed outlets catering to them on bhagwan das road africa avenue and nearby neighbourhoods remained shutat jangpura only a handful of shops opened on monday naseem khan who runs a mobile phone repair shop at kashmiri park said many people had approached me to get their phones repaired we are maintaining social distancing and making sure people dont assemble in front of the shopthere were a few shops that faced shortage of staff jaswant singh a shop owner in west delhis possangipur said none of his employees turned up i have an electronic goods shop and 18 electricians work with us while seven of them have gone back to their villages the other 11 said they would come to work when the shop opened however none of them came saying they were afraid of catching the infection and passing it on to their children he addedanother shopkeeper in east delhis preet vihar said only one of his 20 workers turned up we have been providing our staff rations so that they dont leave for their villages since no raw material is available my employees said there was no use in them coming to the shop said kamaljeet a cement shop owner