Janata Curfew on Sunday morning greeted people with severe shortage of milk with a number of regular outlets either closing their shops or running out of stocks within half an hour of opening and rampant hoarding of milk packets was witnessed in the city. The first sign of disobeying the Janata Curfew was large gatherings in front of chicken and red meat shops, as people wanted to enjoy the day at home.
While people ran from one outlet to the other looking for milk to have the morning coffee or tea, many outlets sold milk packets at a higher price. The 160 ml pack that costs ₹10 was sold at ₹15 and full cream 500 ml packs that cost between ₹26 and ₹28 were sold at ₹30. People made an unusual beeline for the roadside tea and coffee stalls in the morning with milk packets vanishing from the shelves.
Dodla dairy franchisee Srinivas in Ramnagar said every day at 3.30 p.m he gets 150 litres and sells them till next afternoon, but on Saturday evening they were sold out within two hours.
While there were no buses running on the streets, autorickshaws and motorcycles plied normally till 7.30 a.m. and later streets wore a deserted look. The heart of the city Saptagiri Circle and Clock Tower Centre were totally deserted.
RTC stops services
The Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation stopped its services from 11 p.m. on Saturday as Telangana and Karnataka borders were sealed from 10.30 p.m.
RTC Regional Manager Sumanth R Adoni told The Hindu that long distance buses would be operated again from 10 p.m. on Sunday depending on the number of reservations and demand. “People stopped coming to the bus stations from 8 p.m. onwards,” he observed.
The local services to villages were stopped at 11 p.m. and all vehicles brought back to the 13 depots in the district. The RTC proposes to take this opportunity to clean the buses and bus station premises.
