Bhubaneswar: Additional Commissioner of Police of this city Anup Sahoo has assured residents of the state capital that there are enough stocks of grocery items to last for more than 20 days. “Bhubaneswar has enough grocery stocks to last for over 20 days. So there is no need for people to panic,” the senior police official said Monday.
In his statement Sahoo also urged consumers not to rush to shops for hoarding essential commodities. He said that there is no need to panic and people should not crowd shops anywhere in the city. The senior police official also appealed to the people to maintain social distancing in the shops. He said that those who violate social distancing norms will be penalised severely.
Sahoo stated that with grocery shops remaining open for sufficient amount of time, people have ample opportunity to buy their products. Hence they should shop in a disciplined manner without breaking the rules imposed by the government. Sahoo also said that people should not hoard essential commodities unnecessarily as it will lead to escalation of prices and others will suffer.
People in large numbers were seen rushing to shops Sunday after the 48-hour shutdown ended throwing caution to the wind and not maintaining the social distancing norms.
On the other hand panic is slowly beginning to increase among people of some districts as the lockdown period continues. They fear that if the lockdown is extended there will be an acute shortage of essential commodities. However, ‘Odisha Byabasai Mahasangha’ has allayed their apprehensions.
Secretary of the body Sudhakar Panda said Monday, “We will open more grocery counters in all districts for extended periods so that there is no need to crowd the shops. We will also keep watch to prevent the escalation of prices of essential commodities.”
PNN