Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has announced a list of restrictions from January 7 to 31 in view of rising COVID-19 cases.
In accordance with the rules of night curfew, all hotels, restaurants, dhabas, bars, pubs and food joints are being closed by 9 pm. For the first time in Odisha, online food delivery through popular apps like Zomato and Swiggy are also being shut down daily from 9 pm to 7 am. Restaurant owners and customers have been notified through the different delivery apps and are facing a lot of inconvenience.
Padma Charan Mishra, owner of MFC Cloud Kitchen on Kalinga Vihar Road, Ghatikia, was notified through messages from the Swiggy app, about the suspension of delivery services. He says it is causing him a loss of up to Rs 2,000 each night as 9.30-10.30 pm is ‘primetime’ for dinner delivery. He has been following all precautions and guidelines set by the government but he mentions that the rules have taken him by surprise. He plans to adhere with whatever the government decides in the future, but wants his and his customers’ grievances to be heard.
Ashutosh Rath works from home for TCS and shares similar sentiments. “I work late nights and then order in, so that my family is not hassled. I even got Swiggy One which is a prime membership, just because I order so often. I can’t even imagine having dinner before 9 pm and then staying awake till 2-3 am.”
Ashish Kar alternated between driving an auto for Uber and Ola, and delivering food for Zomato and Swiggy during the previous lockdowns. He is in two minds about the night-time curfew. “Business is going to be down and it’s going to hurt day-to-day living, but during the past lockdowns we faced a lot of harassment at night with no one around to help. Drunk people and miscreants would order food to be delivered at deserted locations, where they would try to rob us of our money and bike or just snatch the food without paying,” he says.
