Despite deaths, no norms being followed at vegetable market

RAHUL TAWAR | Apr 21, 2020, 04:13 IST

Ludhiana: Even after the death of two officers due to Covid-19 in less than a week, little seems to have been done on the ground to implement safety norms, including social distancing, in the main vegetable and fruit market of the city.
ACP Anil Kohli and kanungo Gurmail Singh had succumbed to the disease in the past three days, following which the administration claimed to have taken a slew of safety measures. But lack of such steps at the vegetable and fruit mandi at Jalandhar Bypass has become a cause of serious concern. Besides, due to decreased patrolling in the area, a large number of unauthorised vendors have begun entering the city.
Though the district administration has restricted to three days a week the entry of vendors to the mandi for buying fruits and vegetables for sale in retail, there is no provision for thermal screening.
While market sanitisation is being done by the local members of the mandi association regularly, no one is deployed at the entrance to ensure implementation of safety measures.
Gurkamal Singh, president of New Sabzi Mandi Arhtiya Association, said, “Members of the association have been putting their lives at risk due to inadequate safety measures. There is no provision for thermal scanning of visitors. The administration has not deputed anyone at the entrance to ensure sanitization and checking if people are wearing masks and gloves.”
Fearing for their lives in the absence of safety norms, several members of arhtiya association have closed their shops. Raju Malik, chairman of the association, said, “We are dealing with hundreds of vendors and most of the times, we are donating them gloves and masks. Some days back, ACP Anil Kohli too had visited our vegetable market and interacted with many of us. We are creating awareness among vendors, but a majority of the workers involved in procurement are not maintaining social distancing. Many of them don’t wear gloves at the time of buying vegetables and while making payments to arhtiyas. They reason that safety gears hamper their work.”
Secretary of marketing committee Deepak Sharma said, “We will look into the demands of local arhtiyas of ensuring thermal scanning of vendors.”
Deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal said, “The administration will start testing those visiting the sabzi mandi with rapid testing kits. Sufficient amount of rapid testing kits have been received.”