Chennai sees huge crowds at markets on Sunday morning – The Hindu

Vegetable markets across the city saw huge crowds on Sunday morning, ahead of the intensified lockdown from Monday.

Since the State government has announced that all shops would be closed and that vegetables and fruits would be supplied through mobile vehicles in their areas for the next one week, residents flocked to vegetable, fruit shops and grocery stores in their localities to stock up.

Following the announcement Saturday, several shops which were shut opened at around 4 p.m. and then too, had people panic-buying provisions. Since many essentials went out of stock in some storeson by Saturday night, people made a beeline for grocery stores early on Sunday even though shops were to be kept open till 9 p.m.

Crowds thronged the Koyambedu and Kothaval Chavdi market and the local markets at Mandaveli, Mylapore and Tambaram. The prices of vegetables shot up too inviting criticism in the social media. Many took to Twitter to blame the DMK government for introducing the total lockdown in a hurry making Sunday shopping a “super spreader” event.

Shops opened as early as 6 a.m. and many residents began to queue outside soon after. V. Nirupama, a resident of Velachery, said that there was a queue at a supermarket in her locality at 6.30 a.m. itself. As time progressed, shops in several localities got extremely crowded. In some markets, the police had barricaded the entrance preventing the entry of vehicles but could not control the crowds.

“While I was able to get into a supermarket here to buy things, the long queues at the billing counters were unmanageable and I had to leave,” said V.Vinaayak, a resident of Adyar. “There were long queues outside even small grocery shops here. Some people also came without masks and di dnot want to stand in a queue which was chaotic,” said a resident of Nandambakkam.

Delivery services too had an influx of orders for vegetables and other groceries right from 6 a.m. in the morning. R. Kalyani, a resident of Mylapore said that she tried to place an order for groceries for around two hours before it was finally possible to.