Garment and footwear traders, who have not been allowed to reopen their shops when businesses are restarting elsewhere as per Unlock 1.0, are now faced with another crippling crisis: rats eating into clothes and yarn stocks in shops.

On Monday evening, Pawan Kumar, a garment retailer at Morhabadi, was in for a rude shock when he opened his shop to take a look. “I was stunned to see that stocks of brand new garments were ruined by rodents,” rued Kumar, proprietor of Kumar dresses. “If the lockdown has killed my business, the rodent menace will make me go completely broke. It is difficult to assess the loss unless the entire shop is inspected properly,” he added.

Praveen Lohia, proprietor of Only Vimal, a retail outlet at Church Road, complained that electric cables of his shop air conditioning had been eaten into by rodents. “Two days back, I discovered tiny pieces of wire littered at various places outside the shop. When I opened the shop to check, I found the wiring and cables of at least two ACs have been damaged. The LED lighting system inside the shop is at risk now,” he said.

Watch shops on Main Road that were allowed to open in Ranchi as per the norms of Unlock 1.0 Telegraph picture

An official of Big Shop, another prominent garment showroom, added that the continued closure was adding to their woes with every passing day. “Our biggest problem now is dust and the issue of rodents and termites. Forget about lack of sale during the lockdown, one of the reasons why the state government should allow us to open shops is to save our stock and valuables,” he said, unwilling to be named.

While the state government allowed opening of standalone electronics and telecom shops outside containment zones as a part of Unlock 1.0 since June 1, garment, footwear, and salons weren’t permitted to reopen, causing resentment among traders.

Garment and footwear traders staged state-wide protests, questioning the logic behind the state government’s move to keep their establishments shut while allowing many other shops selling “non-essentials” to resume business. In the last week, traders’ organisations have met several ministers, including chief minister Hemant Soren, to seek permission for their shops to reopen.

There are close to 3,500 wholesale and retail garment traders in Ranchi. President of Jharkhand Thok Vastra Vikreta Sangh Anil Jalan said while the major chunk of their business season, between March- May, turned out to be a damp squib due to the lockdown, many are now staring at permanently closing their businesses.

“On an average, the garment sector in Ranchi conducts trade worth Rs 2,000 crore annually, and 40 per cent business happens during March to May due to Id and the marriage season. All is zero now. Small retailers will be the worst hit now as they won’t have the capacity to invest or take loans to redo their shops and continue to pay staff salaries,” he said.

BJP’s Bokaro MLA Biranchi Narayan wrote a letter to chief secretary Sukhdev Singh on Tuesday, highlighting problems being faced by garment, footwear, cosmetic shop and salon owners. “I have come across reports of many garment traders in Bokaro who are facing losses due to rodents attacking their shops. And many who opened their shops to clean them, were slapped with police cases,” he said, adding that the state government should allow resumption of their trade by prescribing standard operating procedures.