Ludhiana residents throng markets hours before weekend lockdown sets in
With shops closing at 5pm, an hour before the weekend lockdown came into effect at 6pm on Friday, unprecedented rush was witnessed at grocery, fruit and vegetable shops at markets all over the city from 4pm onwards
With shops closing at 5pm, an hour before the weekend lockdown came into effect at 6pm on Friday, unprecedented rush was witnessed at grocery, fruit and vegetable shops at markets all over the city from 4pm onwards.
Residents thronged Ghumar Mandi, which resulted in traffic jams on the roads. Many of them parked haphazardly, leading to further chaos. Many customers were also seen hoarding essential items like vegetables, fruits, bread and butter.
To handle the huge demand, many shopkeepers stocked up on items such as milk, curd, lassi and butter, which were sold out at many places by 5pm.
Vegetable and fruit vendors also set up their stalls at 3pm. Usually, they reach the markets at 5pm. Here too, heavy rush was seen, and stock was sold out. The situation was the same at all markets like Model Town, Pakhowal Road, Jawahar Nagar, Sarabha Nagar and BRS Nagar. In Ghumar Mandi, several kiryana stores closed at 4pm, to avoid crowding.
Sabun Di Hatti grocery store in Ghumar Mandi, which usually receives a footfall of around 50 customers everyday, saw 100 to 120 customers on Saturday. At Full Stop store on College Road, several shelves were found empty as shoppers purchased items in bulk. Even at the milk stores, stocks were sold out. Ram Gopal, owner of Krishna store, Civil Lines, said, “We opened our store at 8.30am and rush was witnessed between 10am and 3pm. I have five employees, but it was not enough to handle the heavy footfall. The government had given enough time to residents for shopping, but people are still visiting markets one to two hours before lockdown and violating social distancing norms.”
At Mani Ram Balwant Rai departmental store, long queues were witnessed between 11am and 2pm and store owners asked all the customers to maintain physical distance.
Sushil Kumar, a resident, said, “I prepared a list and went to market in the morning and found no rush at the grocery stores at 9am. At 4pm in the afternoon, when I was coming back from office, I found traffic snarls in the market near my house. It took me 20 minutes to cross the road while the market is just five minutes away from my home.”
Vivek Kumar, who owns a grocery store, said, “I have supplied extra packets of milk to the customers for two days as the shop will remain closed on the weekend. Most customers have already bought the items they require.”