Coimbatore: Madness on lockdown eve; protocols go for a six

COIMBATORE: Traffic on city roads and crowds at shopping hubs on Sunday resembled a festival-eve experience. While panic shopping drove people in huge numbers to grocery stores and markets a day before another week-long complete lockdown kicked in, it also showed that the newly-elected government has a long a way to go to break the chain of the virus.
Chaos prevailed in crowded market areas such as TK Market, Ukkadam vegetable market, TK Market and grocery shops across the city, where narrow roads and the population density does not allow for Covid appropriate behaviour, through Sunday.
At shopping hubs and other places, physical distancing went for a toss despite warnings that hefty monetary fines would be slapped on violators.
Vegetable prices shot up manifold as demand rose due to short supply from farms. “More than 50,000 people visited TK Market on Sunday to buy vegetables. We don’t have any stock to sell after 3pm,” said A M Shajahan, a vegetable seller.
A kilogram of beans, which was sold for Rs 60 on Saturday, was sold for Rs 200 on Sunday. Tomato was sold for Rs 50 (Rs 20 on Saturday), brinjal for Rs 80 (Rs 40), beetroot for Rs 60 (Rs 20), carrot for Rs 60 (Rs 40), cabbage for Rs 30 (Rs 15), lemon for Rs 120 (Rs 70), bitter gourd for Rs 80 (Rs 40), big onion for Rs 50 (Rs 25) and 1.5 kg of small onion for Rs 100 (Rs 50).
“People stocked up on vegetables and essential items as shops won’t open for a week,” Shajahan added.
Though most of the customers wore masks, they failed to maintain social distancing.
Meanwhile, people thronged bus terminals to leave for their native places, mostly to southern districts. The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) operated buses to Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Madurai, Mettupalayam, Pollachi, Udumalpet, Palani and Trichy from Coimbatore city. Thousands of people were gathered at Singanallur bus stand, Ukkadam bus stand and Coimbatore central bus stand. The Tamil Nadu State Express Transport Corporation (TNSETC) operated buses to southern districts.
To enforce lockdown norms, the city police will deploy 1,000 cops from Monday morning. People can step out only for medical emergencies, deputy commissioner of police G Stalin said. “We will book anyone found loitering and seize their vehicles,” he said. The rural police will deploy 750 cops.
The situation wasn’t any different in the state’s capital city. “The efforts of frontline workers all these days are being negated because of policy decisions like this. To blame everything on public indiscipline is also unfair as the authorities gave only one-and-a-half day for people and naturally panic mode creeps in. The decision makers should have thought better,” said S Srinivasan, a resident of Velachery in Chennai.