PATNA: Customers with their faces covered will not be allowed inside jewellery shops in Bihar. The decision was taken by the Bihar unit of all india jewellers and gold federation at a meeting with the district jewellers’ associations on Tuesday, citing security reasons as gold and silver prices have been on the rise, federation president Ashok Kumar Verma said.Patna jewellers have already started putting notices to this effect outside their shops. Verma said the decision is not against any community or group, but only a pre-emptive security measure.The federation’s president, Pankaj Arora, said on Wednesday the decision will gradually be implemented across the country. “Customer’s face must be visible. He or she will not be allowed to enter a jewellery shop in any kind of veil, be it ‘hijab’, full helmet or ‘pagdi/safa’ (turban). There is no restriction on ‘burqa’ as such but no veil,” he said.Arora said a similar decision was taken by Jhansi jewellers a few days ago following the incidents of theft in shops. “But Bihar is the first to implement it across the state. Even police question us about the identity in case of loot or theft as the person with face covered is not identified in the CCTV cameras.”Asked if it would affect business or what if a customer refuses to abide, Verma, who was in Delhi to attend the CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) meeting, said any genuine person will cooperate. “Only anti-social elements will resist. But we will politely refuse to serve them. In case of any trouble, we will inform the police. After all, a 10gm gold chain costs around Rs 1.41 lakh and silver is over Rs 2.5 lakh/kg. We can’t take any risk as jewellers are the soft target of criminals,” he said.Minister and LJP(RV) neta Sanjay Singh said the move will act as a deterrent.” A BJP spokesperson said, “What’s wrong if jewellers take a decision to protect their businesses out of security concerns.”
