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Day after 24 test positive at Meerut’s vegetable market, panic grips vendors and buyers
Some of the buyers have also started hoarding, anticipating a hike in prices due to the prevailing uncertainty over the supply of vegetables and fruits.
Meerut: A day after 24 vendors from Meerut’s Naveen Mandi tested coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive, panic has gripped both vendors and buyers in the town.
On Tuesday, the mandi wore a deserted look, as most of the scared vendors have decided not to open their shops for the next few days, compelling district authorities to consider shifting the market to two or three temporary alternate sites in a bid to maintain an uninterrupted supply of fruits and vegetables and also strictly enforce social distancing norms.
Some of the buyers have also started hoarding, anticipating a hike in prices due to the prevailing uncertainty over the supply of vegetables and fruits.
Poonam Sharma, a homemaker, was candid. “I’ve stocked up on onion, potato, and green vegetables, which should last me for at least a week. Prices are likely to skyrocket after the mandi shut down over the Covid-19 scare,” she said.
Her apprehension was not unfounded. She lives in the town’s Ganga Nagar locality, where over a dozen vendors sell vegetables and fruits daily. But on Tuesday, only two vendors went around selling vegetables and fruits, and that, too, at prices 30% higher than Monday, when 24 new Covid-19 positive cases came to light.
A vendor pleaded helplessness about the overnight spike in vegetable prices. “The district authorities have cancelled our passes. Fortunately, only two of us managed to get some vegetables and fruits for our daily customers,” he said.
Narendra Singh, the state government-appointed secretary entrusted to run Naveen Mandi, which has emerged as Meerut’s epicentre of Covid-19 positive cases, said scared traders refused to open their shops on Tuesday.
“The district authorities are searching for two-three alternate locations for the mandi to function for at least the next three days, while an intense sanitisation drive will be launched to clean the market premises,” he added.
“Passes issued to traders and vendors stand cancelled and fresh ones will be issued after the mandi is temporarily shifted to the new locations. The district authorities are looking at the makeshift locations from where fruits and vegetables can be sold in a bid to ensure that social distancing norms can be strictly enforced,” Singh said.
Meerut city magistrate Satyendra Kumar Singh admitted that maintaining an uninterrupted supply of fruits and vegetables amid the pandemic poses a massive challenge for the district administration. Vegetables and fruits are essential commodities. We’re trying our best to ensure that the supply chain is not disrupted,” he said.
Ashok Sonkar, president of Naveen Mandi Vegetable Traders’ Association, is under home quarantine after a person, who works in a shop adjacent to his, tested Covid-19 positive on Monday.
“This is an unprecedented situation. Traders are running scared. Farmers are destroying vegetables on their farms. Everyone, including the state government, is suffering massive losses because of this viral outbreak,” said Sonkar.
He, too, demanded an intense sanitisation drive in the mandi and urged traders to come up with a plan in tandem with the district administration to ensure that there is no disruption in the supply of fruits and vegetables in the town.
Sarfaraj Ansari, secretary of Naveen Mandi Vegetable Traders’ Association, said that over 150 wholesale traders operate out of the mandi, and up to 4,000 cater to different parts of Meerut. The mandi’s daily supply is estimated to be a truckload of potato, onion, and tomato each and around 4,000 quintals of green vegetables, he said.
The district health officials found that 24 people from the mandi were Covid-19 positive after they conducted the pool test in per the Uttar Pradesh government’s bid to carry out aggressive testing to flatten the curve.
But Monday’s detection of 24 new Covid-19 cases has caused alarm among many customers in Meerut.
“I’m using a bucket while buying vegetables and fruits from a vendor and then washing them extensively. This is the least I can do to ensure my family members don’t contract the viral infection. Vegetables and fruits pass through several hands before they reach the end-user and can be potential carriers of SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19,” said Mithilesh, a customer.