Bengaluru, Jan 22 (IANS): National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has thanked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for lifting the weekend curfew in Karnataka and hearing the concerns of the restaurant industry.

Mukesh Tolani, Head of NRAI Bengaluru Chapter said: "On behalf of the Industry, I profusely thank Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai for lifting the weekend curfew in Bengaluru. A huge thank you for hearing out our concerns so patiently, understanding them and reassuring us that they will be resolved soon. The announcement of the lifting of weekend curfew is the ray of hope for us and the industry can certainly be hopeful of a balanced approach with regards to curfews in future."

He further added that during a meeting with the CM, they had conveyed that they were fighting a grim battle for existence and only an urgent policy and fiscal support from the Government could help them survive the pandemic.

"I was so delighted to see that the Chief Minister is pro-business and advised us to make more detailed and specific representations and promised to take up the concerns of the industry on priority. The meeting gave the industry much optimism after a gloomy 2 years as Basavaraj Bommai also expressed empathy towards the situation faced by our industry over the last 2 years and promised to keep the industry in mind when taking decisions on curfews and expressed that he would be happiest when businesses like ours can get back to complete normal operations," he explained.

The representatives of NRAI and Craft Brewers Association of India met with the Chief Minister on Friday where they expressed the concerns of the Hospitality Industry with regards to the weekend curfew, taxations, licensing and ease-of-doing business.

The government ended the weekend curfew on Friday despite the growing number of Covid in the state especially in Bengaluru after the high-level meeting.