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Coronavirus update: LPG, water vendors, meat shop owners in Delhi allege cops target them
Coronavirus update: Amid the three-week nationwide lockdown, several bottled water dealers pointed out how the lack of clarity regarding their operations make them and their delivery persons susceptible to the police crackdown.
Nimesh Kumar, tore out a page from a notebook he borrowed from his neighbour Thursday morning and frantically jotted down the apartment numbers, shouted out by a group of people wearing surgical masks who stood facing his small makeshift kiosk in south Delhi’s Khirki village.
“There are too many orders and it is difficult to deliver them all within a short interval. The police do not think twice before swinging their lathis at us when they spot us on the streets,” said Kumar, who works with a shop that delivers 20-litre drinking water jars in the neighbourhood.
Earlier this week, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Union home ministry had issued an order elaborating on a list of exemptions categorised as essentials.
The list clearly states that piped water supply won’t be affected by the lockdown but does not explicitly mention about the supply of bottled drinking water, a commodity that 14% households in Delhi depend on, according to data shared in 2019 by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Several bottled water dealers pointed out how the lack of clarity regarding their operations make them and their delivery persons susceptible to the police crackdown.
“We are in a mess. Hundreds of people want bottled water. Currently, we have a decent stock but there are two challenges. One, delivery is a major issue. Two, we don’t see supply, which means a major crisis awaits us,” said Ankit Naagar, another packaged water dealer in Chirag Dilli.
The same is the plight of cooking gas dealers.
By 8am Thursday, a long queue had formed outside Rajan Pal’s shop, which had half its shutter down to ward off a police crackdown, in south Delhi’s Gupta Colony. The queued up people carried portable 4kg cooking gas cylinders that needed an immediate refill.
“The government says milk booths, vegetable kiosks and grocery shops will be open. Even if I avail of these essentials today, without cooking gas, how do I cook any of it?” said Manoj Parashar, a postgraduate student who migrated from Madhya Pradesh.
By 10am, Pal had locked his shop, having refilled as many as 11 mini-cylinders after charging ₹110 per kilo. This is an industry that runs more or less in an unauthorised manner in Delhi, given that getting a 14.2kg cylinder from one of the authorised dealers would require one having a proper address and ID proofs. In the absence of such documents, the large migrant population in Delhi — about 63 lakh migrants, according to the 2011 Census data —depend on the smaller cylinders that have to be refilled every few days.
The government order says cooking gas agencies will remain functional during the lockdown but, as is the case with bottled water, it failed to take into consideration shops that refill smaller cylinders.
Meat shop owners were the other group that complained of police high-handedness, despite their enterprises also being listed in the government’s list of essentials.
“A large number of people believe that coronavirus spread has a link with meat consumption. Hence, residents often complain to police and they ask me to close my shop. I tried arguing a few times but that did not yield any result,” said Brajesh, a meat shop owner in Malviya Nagar market.
The personnel at the Malviya Nagar police station said the meat shops have not been asked to close but have been told to operate as per the hours prescribed by the government. They said some meat shops have run out of stock and that is the reason why they have shut, and not due to police high-handedness, a senior officer from the south district’s deputy commissioner’s office said.
