Ranchi, June 1: Taking commuters’ interest into count, senior superintendent of police M.S. Bhatia has relaxed the deadline for shutting tea and betel kiosks dotting the railway stations and bus stands. But there is no respite for the shop owners in other parts of the city.

After the relaxation, tea and betel stall owners near stations and bus stands can run business till late in the night.

Bhatia said that the relaxation was given keeping the commuters’ interest in mind.

“We realised that tea stalls near bus stands and railway stations are of help to commuters. Their owners give the outsiders an idea of the place they want to go,” Bhatia said.

The tea stall owners near the stations and bus stands welcomed the relaxation order. “After this order, I have decided not to leave the city. The situation had become so tough for me after the early closure diktat that I had almost made up my mind to leave the capital,” said Bajrangi, a tea stall owner near Kanta Toli Bus stand.

But a section of shopkeepers is still cut up with Bhatia.

“Had Bhatia known my history, he would have realised my problem. People know my shop opens in the afternoon and runs till late in the night. After the city police restrained me from opening my shop after 11pm, I am incurring loses of Rs 500 every day,” said a betel shop in the hub of the city, away from the stations and bus stands

A tea stall owner on Main Road, taking strong exception to the ban, said: “It was wrong to think that only anti-social elements come out of their houses after 11pm.”