LET’S NOT DROP OUR GUARD

Lockdown Norms, Social Distancing Go For A Toss As Thousands Crowd Markets

Team TOI

Chennai:30.03.2020

“There are no rules here,” Sundaresan, a tomato seller at the Koyambedu wholesale market, told us when we asked why he had placed baskets on the white circles meant to keep customers at safe distance from one another.

Sundaresan, who was busy convincing his customers that he sold the best tomatoes in town, knew that the need of the hour was to use masks and maintain social distance, but why should he bother when thousands descended on markets across the city, throwing Covid-cautions to the wind?

Sundaresan’s “no rules here” applied everywhere as Chennai, on the fifth day of the lockdown, came out in numbers to haggle at the weekend markets and take home whatever they could – fresh or stale. From Koyambedu to Kasimedu, and from Madipakkam to MGR Nagar, people either did not care or thought that they have had enough of the lockdown.

Outnumbered, the police looked on helplessly. On the first day of the shutdown, they had copped criticism for letting the lathi talk, they came back with creative solutions, but none worked today. The cane came out and a policeman was seen chasing away people at Kasimedu.

The state government had announced that only one from a family should step out for essentials and emergencies. But on Sunday, the exemption had become a free pass to throng wholesale markets.

At the Koyambedu market, a policeman did check for masks, but those who did not have one were told to tie a kerchief or a pallu or a dupatta before being let off. He also sprayed sanitizer from a bottle of a household cleaning agent. But once inside after buying the entry coupon, the Covid-curbs were off, it was like any other Sunday, albeit with many shops shut. For men like Sundaresan that was an opportunity, but there were some, like K Vetrivel, a potato seller, who asked customers to wear masks. “It is for our own safety,” he told them.

But what’s a plea amid a pandemonium?

Around 3pm, deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam visited the market for inspection. S Govindarajan, chief administrative officer of the market management committee, diligently pointed out that they had taken all precautions. But by then all the shops were shut.

Only if the leader could read the pulse of his people… and the mind of his officials.

At the Kothaval Chavadi market, social distancing had taken a new meaning. A few metres away, a new market with 20 shops had been created on a college ground, with neat white circles defining the Laskhman rekha. The police kept pleading, urging people to move to the new market. But Kothaval Chavadi has had its rules for decades and the Sunday would be no different.

By the Bay of Bengal, Kasimedu did what it always does – attract a sea of people. Those who have been to that northern tip of the city would know what the hum of that fish market is -- a contrast to the silence that is around us now. In the morning, warnings the police shouted were lost in the white noise, probably adding to it. A few constables deployed the cane, but the people returned in numbers.

A policeman said people came out with families and most of them were defiant. “I do not know how to pick and choose fish, so I brought my wife. The child wanted to come along so we all are here,” a buyer told TOI.

“We are criticized for using the lathi, but they don’t listen to us,” said a sub-inspector on duty. “They just pick quarrels and start recording. They don’t seem to understand, the rules are in place for their good.”

But didn’t Sundaresan told us, “there are no rules here”?

A FREE RUN: On the fifth day of the nationwide lockdown, main markets in the city were buzzing with activity on Sunday as people turned up in numbers, some with their families, to steal a deal. Outnumbered by shoppers, police could do little to keep the crowds at away