Hyderabad: Ramzan rush at cloth stores

Hyderabad: Imposing partial lockdown does not seem to have deterred people from thronging to shops not just to buy essentials but also clothes. This kind of scenario was more visible on day one of lockdown in the Old City.

As all shops, including liquor and clothes shops, were open from 6 am to 10 am, there was heavy rush to buy clothes in areas like Tolichowki rather than in grocery shops.

In many other areas, the blues of the first lockdown like house maids not coming, cooks not coming, home delivery of groceries and vegetables not being easily available were seen in many parts of the city. Most of the e-commerce sites like Grofers and Big Basket have either run out of stocks or are unable to deliver.

From 10 am onwards, the police was on roads and was trying to create awareness among the people as to why they should not move out from 10 am onwards unless it was an emergency.

The TSRTC which has been running skeleton services all these days, drastically reduced its services from Wednesday.

The worst-affected were those who wanted to go to their native towns and villages. A sort of scramble for buses was seen at all bus stations.

The RTC was plying a few buses only from Jubilee Bus station at Secunderabad for Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad. All the buses were permitted to run between district headquarters and the main bus stations in Hyderabad. The number of local buses in the districts was also reduced by 60 per cent in view of the low occupancy ratio during the lockdown period.

People coming to Hyderabad from the districts and those leaving the state capital during the relaxation hours on their own vehicles were asked to pay fine for not possessing the police permission letters at the check posts set up at all district borders. Police said that the people who move on their own vehicles on long journey would not be permitted to move freely even during the four-hour relaxation period. They must possess valid passes, Adilabad SP Rajesh said.

The working classes particularly women employed in private companies like manufacturing units faced problems in reaching their work place. In Hyderabad, workers relied on their own transportation to reach the work places. As police imposed lockdown rules strictly, the workers were forced to wait for at least 30 minutes to get police clearances at the junctions which were closed with barricades in industrial zones in Hyderabad . Police were insisting for valid passes to move freely but the managements have no clue about it.

Big malls in the Greater Hyderabad limits and retail shops in the towns were seen full of visitors to buy essential commodities. People who were waiting in the long queues at the malls were asked to leave as the managements closed the sale counters sharp at 10 am.

Vegetable vendors at many Rythu Bazaars in Hyderabad were seen struggling to leave the place with leftover stocks due to non-availability of transportation. The State Marketing department could not make necessary arrangements for the transportation of vegetables from the farms to Rythu Bazaars. This resulted in shortage of some variety of vegetables such as tomatoes, capsicum and carrot.

State Marketing department officials claimed that adequate measures were taken to maintain good stocks of essential commodities mainly milk, eggs and vegetables by providing transportation facilities between the markets and farming centres. However, official claims seem to be far away from ground realities.