New Delhi: Hundreds of gym owners on Saturday took out a protest march to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence here to oppose the DDMA's decision to keep fitness centres closed even as the number of Covid cases have come down in the city.
Demanding that gyms and spas be allowed to reopen, and raising slogans against the government, demonstrators started their march from the Chandgi Ram Akhara to Flagstaff Road in the Civil Lines.
They, however, were stopped by police a few metres away from the chief minister's residence.
Though the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Thursday lifted the weekend curfew and also allowed restaurants, bars and cinema halls to operate with 50 per cent capacity, gyms and schools in the city are still shut.
Restrictions had come into force under a 'yellow alert' issued by the authority in December last year when the Covid positivity rate had crossed 0.5 per cent in the national capital.
"We took out the protest march to make the government and the Delhi lieutenant governor (L-G) hear the plight of gym owners and others engaged in this business," said Chirag Sethi, the president of the Delhi Gym Association (DGA), under which the agitation was organised.
"The fitness industry has already suffered a lot due to the Covid pandemic in the last two years and not allowing our establishments to reopen will prove to be a death warrant for our businesses," he said.