As the State Government has declared a 14-day lockdown from May 5, panic buying was found in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar on Monday. There was mad rush before shops selling grocery, vegetable, other daily consumables, medicines and OMFED outlets.
People flooded at these shops looking to stock up on the items for thenext two weeks. Though police deployments were made at several marketplaces, the customers were in a hurry.
At many shops where slotshad been made for them to stand up for their turn for maintainingsocial distancing, the buyers were creating a melee. At the RelianceFresh outlets also, there were long queues of buyers.In Cuttack, Malgodown and Chhatra Bazar were choke-a-block with the buyers throwing the Covid rules to wind.
There was no socialdistancing at these two places with the scary customers turning out inlarge numbers since early morning ensuring that they have their quotasfor the entire lockdown period.
This was despite the fact that the Commissionerate police and the BMC and the CMC had declared that the shops selling essential items would remain open during the lockdown.
Some dishonest traders seized upon the situation and sold the items at higher prices. The prices of some grocery items and vegetables soared up on the day by Rs 5 to Rs 10.
