A day after the Janata Curfew, it was a mad rush of people at all vegetable markets, grocery and medical shops all over the district right from the early hours of Monday.
The first target of the public was vegetable markets, buying whatever variety they could lay their hands on, unmindful of the sudden jump in the prices. In Chittoor, the vegetable market was flooded with people, leading to exhaustion of stocks by afternoon. In case of essential commodities, several supermarkets saw huge crowds initially, but following assurance that they would be exempted from the lockdown, the crowds gradually thinned.
The immediate impact of the lockdown was felt on tomato, which was sold at ₹40 a kg on Monday, as against ₹15 on Saturday. The price for the second grade variety stood at ₹14 a kg, showing a jump of ₹5. At several markets in the district, tomatoes sold like hotcakes. The price of 4 kg onions jumped to ₹100 from ₹50. The prices of regular vegetables like brinjal, carrot, ladies’ fingers and several gourds doubled. As the ginger stocks started exhausting, consumers competed to have their portion, paying whatever price the vendor demanded.
No takers for fruits
Interestingly, there were no takers for fruits and vendors struggled to dispose them of at throwaway prices. “During March 15-20 period, several vendors across the district procured the first batch of musk melon and hoped for a good price. But our hopes were dashed. We were forced to sell them in haste just to get back our investment. The virus scare reduced the interest among public on fruits. Large stocks with us have perished,” Anwar, a vendor in Nagari, said.
Separate zones
Meanwhile, in order to tackle the problem of public congregations, the municipal authorities decided to create five separate zones for selling vegetables in Chittoor.
The COVID-19 scare impacted the meat, poultry and fish markets, which remained closed all over the district.
