Kolkata, April 20: In a new order, the West Bengal government has now cut down the number of hours allowing the sweetmeat shops to remain open for four hours till noon instead of eight hours daily.

The fresh order comes four days later after the government allowed shops to remain open for eight hours.

Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said the sweet hops will now be open from 8 a.m. to 12 noon, according to IANS report. Earlier on April 16, the state government had permitted the shops to sell from 8 am to 4 pm. However, the move was strongly criticised by the Centre including Opposition parties in the state, who complained of a lack of social distancing in the outlets amid Covid-19 outbreak.



Even on March 30, the Mamata Banerjee-led government had allowed the sweetmeat shops to remain open from 12 noon to 4 pm.

However, the currents order seems to have taken the cognizance of the opposition by keeping the flower shops also open till 12 noon.

With 47 new deaths and 1336 new cases reported in last 24 hours, India's total number of Coronavirus positive cases rose above 18.5k and death toll jumped to 590 on Tuesday morning. The number of positive Covid-19 cases in West Bengal has crossed 392 as on Tuesday.