Sunday shoppers crowd T Nagar like all is well

Sunday shoppers crowd T Nagar like all is well

Hub Under Teynampet Zone Which Has 1.3K Active Cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.10.2020

Even as Chennai added 1,250 cases to its tally of 1.82 lakh Covid-19 cases on Sunday and 19 deaths to its grim statistic of 3,415 deaths from the viral infection, l ocals were found flocking in numbers to the shopping hub, T Nagar.

The sight of the shopping crowd with little space to breathe at the perennially busy Ranganathan Street is not a welcome sight during a pandemic. The adjacent streets too were crowded and people were seen going about their day, as though the times are normal.

“Apart from being a threat to themselves, some of the shopping crowd also pose a risk for hundreds of people who reside in and around the shopping areas of T Nagar. We understand that the authorities have allowed shops to reopen to revive businesses, but public welfare should also be considered. There should be stricter restrictions on functioning of shops during the pandemic,” said S Sai Balaji, a resident of West Mambalam.

Residents also said the authorities can consider separate set of restrictions and deploy more personnel to regulate crowds in shopping hubs like T Nagar, at least until the pandemic dies down.

As on Sunday, Teynampet zone (Zone 9), under which T Nagar falls, has the second most number of active cases in the city — 1,336.

According to traders, some of the crowd are not regular shoppers but people who own small retail outlets who had come to buy stock. “We cannot possibly turn away our customers. We try our level best to ensure physical distancing in and around the premises of our shop, but since the roads are narrow, they get crowded,” said a shop owner on Ranganathan Street.

The corporation’s fining mechanism too has not proved to be a deterrent as crowds continue to swarm the shopping hubs. Greater Chennai Corporation has collected more than ₹2 crore since March as fines from residents as well as shopkeepers and other establishments found flouting pandemic norms such as not wearing masks and not maintaining physical distancing.

CATASTROPHIC DAY OUT: Ranganathan Street was packed with shoppers on Sunday. The tar tops of roads around were barely visible as thousands soaked in the festive spirit ignoring pandemic norms