Personal distancing takes a back seat as people throng markets, meat stalls

Collector urges the public not to venture out to busy places like market unnecessarily

30/03/2020, WILSON THOMAS ,COIMBATORE

People crowding in front of a fish stall at Ukkadam retail market in Coimbatore on the fifth day of the lockdown on Sunday. S. Siva SaravananS_SIVA SARAVANAN

The call for personal distancing and efforts to enforce the 21-day national lockdown to combat COVID-19 took a back seat on Sunday as people thronged in large numbers at vegetable, fish markets and meat stalls in the city.

Though policemen were posted at most of the markets, the rush in the morning was beyond control.

Uzhavar Santhais at R.S. Puram, Singanallur, Mettupalayam and Sulur, and the vegetable market at Somanur witnessed rush on Sunday morning.

The police used hand-held public addressing system to advise people to maintain queue and proper distance while purchasing vegetables at R.S Puram Uzhavar Santhai.

A vendor from the market said that people were reluctant in maintaining queue and one metre distance in the absence of the police.

Meat stalls also witnessed rush in the morning. The police and staff of the Coimbatore Corporation made announcements to maintain personal distancing.

While the wholesale fish market at Ukkadam witnessed moderate rush, limited space and shortage of arrival of fish led to crowding in front of fish stalls at the retail market on Ukkdam-Perur bypass.

Majority of the crowd found in markets and meat stalls were of two persons from the same household, like husband-wife duo, which could have been avoided in the time of a pandemic, according to the police.

“Many people seemed to have come out to get rid of boredom of being confined to their houses,” said a police officer at the temporary vegetable market at Gandhipuram town bus stand.

District Collector K. Rajamani urged the public not to venture out to busy places like market unnecessarily just to get kill boredom.

“District administration is taking all efforts to avoid crowding in markets. People are expected to come out only for essential services and commodities,” he said.

Temporary vegetable markets at Gandhipuram, Ukkadam and Mettupalayam road bus stands were started to increase availability of vegetables and reduce the crowd pull in shops.

The prices of vegetables had sky-rocketed on Sunday.

“The vendors were quoting any rate they could,” said Samy, who had gone to the Mettupalayam Road bus stand to purchase vegetables. The quality of many of the vegetables was also not good, he said.

It was not just vegetables, but prices of meat, chicken and eggs also shot up here on Sunday. While the retail price of chicken went up to ₹ 180 a kg, that of meat was nearly ₹ 800.

(With inputs from

M. Soundariya Preetha)