Crowds at Sunday markets across city butcher rules

People Show Civic Discipline Only When Around Cops

Yogesh Kabirdoss & Srikanth D TNN

Chennai:06.04.2020

All well-laid plans of the corporation to set up markets in open grounds to ensure social distancing failed on Sunday. At most of the new ‘markets’, buyers stood in the marked spots until police remained and crowded vendors when the men and women in khakhi left.

A hard-pressed Greater Chennai Corporation closed down a temporary market at a playground on Venkatanarayana Road in T Nagar, while 52 meat shops, most of them found selling meat without the stamp of the designated slaughterhouse, will remain shut for three months.

In an open school ground near the Saidapet metro rail station, a market for vegetables and fruits and another for meat and fish, set up by relocating vendors from Jeenis Road market, were as crowded as the old places.

A visit to the place showed that desperate buyers, throwing all caution to the winds, were shopping in large groups, haggling with vendors for the right price and with each other for prime space. Many were keen on finishing their business and leaving before police arrived.

Elango, a Saidapet resident who came to buy vegetables, said, “There was absolutely no compliance, though I saw a few people asking others to stick to social distancing norms.”

At the fish and meat market, there were huge crowds in front of chicken shops. Devika, a fish trader, said 10 people were roped in, on daily wages, to regulate the crowd but seemed overwhelmed. “But, the problem is only with a section of meat traders.” The market draws around 500 customers daily.

Like most newly launched schemes, residents in the area said, all rules were followed when the market was set up five days ago. “Police used to drop in regularly,” said Ganesh, an employee of a private company, said. Then things reverted to normal and piles of indiscriminately dumped thermocol boxes, used to pack fish or meat, are creating additional hassles.

On Saturday, the corporation commissioner asked zonal officers and veterinary officers to keep close watch over meat stalls in all the 15 zones and to check if meat was being sold without the animal being butchered at corporation slaughterhouses. “We were told to be ruthless and seal shops violating norms,” an official said. Ten stalls were shut in Alandur, the most, followed by eight in Adyar. On Monday, due to Mahavir Jayanthi, all meat and fish stalls will be shut.

HYGIENE TAKES A BACK SEAT: While residents skipped the social distancing protocol in several markets in fight for a bargain, 52 meat shops, most of them found selling meat without the stamp of the designated slaughterhouse, were sealed