Panic buying grips Chennai, 4 other Tamil Nadu cities after complete lockdown announcement

After the complete lockdown announcement, markets and other stores in several parts of Tamil Nadu saw hordes of people, in a complete violation of orders.

IANS photo

New Delhi: A day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced a complete four-day lockdown in the state from April 26, the vegetable markets of Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai saw huge crowds on Saturday (April 25) despite the nationwide lockdown in place. Markets and other stores in the cities saw hordes of people, in a complete violation of orders. 

On April 24, Chief Minister Palaniswami had announced a stringent lockdown, saying: "There will be a total lockdown for four days in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai from April 26 to April 29 from 6 am to 9 pm. In Salem and Tiruppur, total lockdown will be in effect from 6 am on April 26 to 9 pm on April 28."

The CM said that groceries and vegetable shops in these corportations would be allowed to function till 3 pm. He requested the people to maintain social distancing norms and cooperate with the government.

Gaurav, one of the several people who rushed to Chennai's Koyambedu market to stock up essentials, told ANI, "Usually I come to the market only twice a month. However, today I came here as CM Palaniswami has announced a complete lockdown for the next 4 days."

When asked about the threat of catching the infection while visiting a crowded wholesale market, he said, "I believe that hunger is scarier than coronavirus. Hence, I took the risk of coming to the Koyambedu market to stock up on vegetables as this 4-day lockdown might get extended by 6-7 days."

Echoing similar feelings, Bhaskaran, another person who took the risk of visiting the Koyambedu market, said that the sudden rush in the market would not have had happened if the Chief Minister had announced this in advance. "Everyone headed to the market as they got scared when the CM announced 4 days of complete lockdown in the State. With this, the situation here has gone out of control as no one is able to manage the huge crowd," he said.