Coronavirus update: Delhiites rush to buy essential items, queue up outside shops

In various neighbourhoods in Delhi, makeshift vegetable and fruit shops (rehris) were also closed either due to lack of clarity on the lockdown over coronavirus pandemic or they could not procure items from the wholesale markets.

It took Ravi Kumar, a resident of Mayur Vihar Extension in east Delhi, nearly two hours to buy groceries at a retail chain store in the neighbourhood on Wednesday. The long wait was not due to the crowd but due to the safety and social distancing measures being taken by store in-charges in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Coronavirus update: Residents line up outside grocer’s store, while maintaining social distance, Delhi’s Pandav Nagar on Wednesday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

“I had to wait for around 30 minutes for my turn to enter the store to buy essential items. It is because they were allowing only two to three persons to go inside the store at a time. The rest would have to wait outside the shop in a queue, maintaining a distance of about three feet. Many items such as tetra packs of milk, flour, vegetables were not available,” Kumar, who sent to the Big Bazaar supermarket, said.

A similar situation prevailed at other grocery stores. Shop owners and the administration took different measures, from asking visitors to mandatorily wear masks, to marking spots outside shops for customers to stand, to ensuring social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We are not allowing anyone inside who is not wearing a mask. We check their temperature and ask them to sanitise hands before entering,” Dileep Tewatiya, a manager at a 24Seven branch in Karol Bagh, said.

To ensure customers keep a safe distance from each other, police in Dwarka joined hands with resident welfare associations (RWA) and market associations to make people stand inside circles marked outside shops.

“We identified grocery shops, medical stores and milk booths that could see crowding. We marked round spots to ensure social distancing among customers,” said Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka).

Not many customers were seen at most grocery shops and vegetable stalls in different parts of Delhi on Wednesday afternoon. Shopkeepers said this was because of panic buying on Tuesday evening itself, just after the announcement of a complete lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Wednesday, there was a surge of around 10% demand in milk.

In various neighbourhoods, makeshift vegetable and fruit shops (rehris) were also closed either due to lack of clarity on the lockdown or they could not procure items from the wholesale markets.

At many stores, shop owners accepted shopping lists from customers and asked them to return after an hour or two to pick up their goods.

“We are doing this to discourage crowing. If that happens, then the entire purpose of social distancing is defeated. Most people who submitted slips are locals and we know them. This move also discourages panic buying,” Ajay Garg, owner of a grocery store in Laxmi Nagar said.

At certain outlets, people complained of poor supply because of which essential items such as milk, wheat, pulses, oil and drinking water jars were either out of stock or were fast diminishing.

However, some products such as vegetables and fruits continued to be supplied. Some shopkeepers complained their suppliers couldn’t turn up either due to restrictions on the roads.

“I cycled for four kilometres to bring some essential items like noodles and wheat because the police had punctured the tyres of the supplier’s van,” alleged Rakesh, who is employed at a grocery shop in Govindpuri.

According to data provided by the government, Delhi has a daily demand of around 350 tonnes of fruits and vegetables, of which onions and potatoes account for around 150 tonnes.

Delhi’s main wholesale market at Azadpur is functional as it deals with items exempted under the essentials category. “Till last night, several trucks were stopped at borders. But after we started issuing e-passes today, the problem eased to a large extent,” said Adil Khan, chairman of the Azadpur Mandi committee.

In the last two days, officers in the agricultural market produce committee said, Delhi received at least 250 tonnes of fruits and vegetables, and the number is likely going up to 300 tonnes on Wednesday. It suggests the daily demand will be decently met if people do not engage in hoarding or panic buying, they said.

According to data provided by Mother Dairy, the largest milk supplying company in Delhi-NCR, the demand for milk supply has gone up by around 10% on Wednesday. There are around 850 milk outlets of Mother Dairy and all were open on Wednesday.

“Mother Dairy is selling an average volume of 35 lakh litres per day in Delhi NCR and today (Wednesday) we have seen a surge in demand of milk by about 5-10%. Our outlets were crowded today morning but there is no need to panic as we have enough stocks. We have started preparing for such situations since February,” a spokesperson of Mother Dairy company said.

Madan Mohan, a confectioner at a Sarita Vihar market, said he hadn’t received supplies of bread, biscuits or water cans since Monday. Mohan said that on Wednesday, he received nearly 50 phone calls from customers who needed drinking water. “I have asked them to visit the shop and convince themselves that I wasn’t lying about the unavailability,” Mohan said, adding the suppliers told him that their godowns were forcibly closed by police or the suppliers were obstructed on the roads.

In the same market, Ram Prakash, keeper of a Safal outlet, said the supply of fruits and vegetables had been uninterrupted. “There was panic buying last evening and we had to ensure they stood in a queue, away from each other. Today the number of customers reduced after a bit of rush in the morning. Many customers were buying a week’s supplies but we can take that load,” said Prakash.

Outside his shop, a message on a board asked customers to enter only two at a time. Inside, a television screen kept repeating an audio-video message to customers to keep safe.

In Model Town, a grocery store hardly had customers. “The situation is a bit relaxed today (Wednesday) as most of the people purchased necessary items yesterday (Tuesday) only. Flour, pulses, cooking oil, rice and noodles are some of the most purchased items. There will be no shortage of essential goods in the next two-three days,” Navankur Dhama, owner of the store, said.

However, in Kalkaji, a shop owner, Kanhaiya Lal, said he was short of essential supplies such as milk, paneer, cooking oil and wheat. “Customers took away large quantities of these items on Tuesday evening. I have sent my employees to the suppliers in the hope that they can procure something,” said Lal.

At an In&Out store in Nehru Place, wheat, pulses, rice, noodles and soft drinks were out of stock, said manager, Ajay Pal. “We don’t even have tissue papers or sanitisers for customers,” he said.

While there were hardly any buyers at this store on Wednesday, on Tuesday night the store manager had to deploy two employees just to manage the crowd outside.

Amid concerns of disruption in back-end supply chain, the Delhi government assured there was enough stock of necessary items and assured that no one involved in the manufacturing and supply of he essential items will be stopped by police.

“There is no shortage of essential items in the city. We will not let the back-end supply chain be affected and for this, we have issued a helpline 1031 for issuance of e-pass to people engaged in transportation and supply of essential items,” Delhi’s food and civil supply minister Imran Hussain said.

In Greater Kailash’s M-block market, shopowners had marked spots for customers to stand while waiting in queue.

In Lutyens’ Delhi, police went about asking customers to stand apart by at least a metre outside shops, said Eish Singhal, DCP (New Delhi).

Regarding the shortage of vegetables and fruits, Hussain said he is personally monitoring the situation and will solve specific problems at the wholesale markets.