On Wednesday, hours before the 15-day restrictions kicked in, a large number of people could be seen waiting in queues for essential groceries outside supermarkets in Aundh, while those living in Ambedkar Vasahat and Indira Gandhi Nagar could be seen making a beeline for the whole sale stores in their area.
People were willing to wait in queues as long as there were enough groceries to last for a month.
“I want to take no chances even if the chief minister has announced 15 days of lockdown. Last year, we couldn’t get enough groceries to feed a family of six, hence this time I am not taking any chances and stocking up on essentials like oil, flours, rice,” said Minal Patil, who came as early as 7 am to D-Mart to buy her essentials.
However, not everyone is lucky, and some are still not sure how will they make it through the 15-day curfew.
Chandrakant Koli, owner of Jai Malhar auto garage is still not sure whether he should keep his shop open or not. He called one of his helpers back to work just a week ago. The helper, Chetan Koli who travelled from Karnataka is wondering if he should go back again.
“I just came back a week ago and now with this announcement I haven’t really made enough money to send home, how will I go back? If I stay here, I will have to find a way to find food if there is no work,” said Chetan Koli.
{{/usCountry}}“I just came back a week ago and now with this announcement I haven’t really made enough money to send home, how will I go back? If I stay here, I will have to find a way to find food if there is no work,” said Chetan Koli.
{{/usCountry}}CM Uddhav Thackeray in a televised address on Tuesday night announced that his government will spend ₹5,400 crore to support people of the state during the 15-day long state-wide curfew, however most are waiting for officials to tell them where to get the free rations.
At Kamgar Putla in Pune where most of the people work in the business of junk and scrap dealers are not aware of whether they are in the register to get the cash transfer scheme that the CM announced. The chief minister had announced a cash transfer scheme for registered construction workers, where ₹1,500 will be deposited in each bank account.
“We work on construction sites, to pick up scrap and our wives help with brick and cement work, are we going to get the money?” asked Rajeev Manjrekar, a part-time construction worker.
Rekha his wife was keen on knowing when the free rations of three kilogram of wheat and two kilogram of rice will be distributed.
Kusum Bengade is a widow and works as a scrap collector said, “I can’t work anymore nor do I have any pension, how will I earn? I am happy to know that CM is giving us wheat and rice but that is not enough. We need oil, masalas, and other ingredients to survive, will someone be providing those too?”
Mohammad Kasim who worked at a bag manufactured was caught sitting idle outside his home in Zuna Bazaar in Pune.
“Ever since the announcement of lockdown, the owner of the bag manufacturer in the bazaar has shut shop and told us to go home and there is no payment as there is no business, so all this lockdown is doing is making the poor suffer. We had just begun work of stitching bags,” said Kasim.
Sheikh Dawood also shut down his tailoring shop.
“With people hardly earning any money, I haven’t got orders, and this is the month of Ramzan where people buy or stitch new clothes, but this year, is yet another setback.”
Even the handicapped and senior citizens are wondering how to go about for these 15 days.
Rekha Kale is handicapped and is taken care by her niece who works as a maid but with restrictions on work and getting tests done every 15 days seems to be an expensive thing.
“We would rather wait for free rations and see how things go instead of trying to spend money on Covid-19 tests,” said Kale.