More mall time: Women at a perfume shop in New Delhi. File picture.

New Delhi, Sept. 14: Before Park Street and its late-night bars get to Delhi, late-night shopping malls might.

Starting tomorrow, the lights-out deadline for Delhi shopkeepers has been pushed back: instead of the regulation 7.30 pm, the shutters can be kept up till as late as 11 in the night.

The idea is to keep up with the Joneses ? if mushrooming malls in .P. Chautala?s Haryana stay open late, how can Sheila Dikshit?s Delhi keep far behind?

No matter if the shopkeepers want it or not, the state has given them the option of keeping cash boxes jingling till much longer. But they will have to abide by the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act under which overtime wages are twice the normal wages, women are not be asked to work after 7.30 pm and employees have to be given a weekly day off.

?There are malls coming up in Noida and Gurgaon, Delhi should not be less than them. We should be able to compete with them and change with the times,? industry and labour minister Mangat Ram Singhal said.

One would expect shopkeepers in prime shopping areas ? Connaught Place, Palika Bazaar, Lajpat Nagar, Karol Bagh or Khan Market ?to be over the moon with joy. But, as with most things, some are happy and some are not.

?We are not interested in keeping our shops open till 11 pm as it is going to cause a physical problem for our employees. If we pay our labour to work overtime and he spends all that money travelling from Trans Yamuna to Khan Market, it does not make it worthwhile.

?Staying open late can only be relaxed for customers who can walk in later but not for the employees,? grumbled Inder Narula of the Prithviraj Road Market Traders? Association in the Khan Market area.

There have not been too many protests yet against the move or any strike threat. The Confederation of All India Traders has slammed it saying it would be disastrous for the health of employees and create a law and order problem.

But the bigger fish among the shopkeepers in Connaught Place and Palika Bazaar are beaming. The New Delhi Traders? Association ? comprising shops in the outer and inner rings of CP ? and the Palika Bazaar Shopkeepers? Association have been demanding extended timings over the past few years.

Dinesh Gaur of the Palika Bazaar association said the move was a huge relief. ?This is a good decision. Though even now most shops stay open till 9 pm, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation guards at our entrance stop customers from walking in after 7.30. Now this inspector raj has gone,? he said.

Turning up his nose at the markets in Lajpat Nagar and Karol Bagh, Gaur added: ?They are different to CP, which is a much better shopping place.

?Here, there is plenty of parking space. Treatment of customers is better. There is plenty of space to walk and shop unlike these places where there is no place. They just don?t want to see CP do better and they are opposing this decision.?

Gaur conceded that the move could adversely affect the fortunes of smaller shopkeepers. ?Big shops find management easier. Employees can be rotated. But there has to be a start somewhere,? he said.