Supplies from K’taka will resume soon, says Goa CM
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I have spoken to the Karnataka CM. Some trucks headed to Goa were stopped but he has assured me that they will be allowed to pass.
PRAMOD SAWANT, Goa CM
nPANAJI: Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said supplies from Karnataka, which sealed its borders on March 22, will resume soon, after he spoke to his counterpart, BS Yediyurappa over video conference.
“I have spoken to the Karnataka chief minister. Some trucks headed to Goa were stopped but he has assured me that they will be allowed to pass,” Sawant said.
A statement further released by the government said the supply “will ease in a day or two.” “Empty trucks have gone last night to these locations for supplies,” it read.
Goa receives supplies from Belgaum in North Karnataka, including vegetables like onions, potatoes, and carrots which are not grown in Goa. The state augments its meat supply from poultry farms in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and sources additional milk supplies from neighbouring states.
On their ninth day of lockdown — the state observed Janta Curfew till March 24, after which the national lockdown began — residents found that while some vegetables were available in the market, their prices were higher.
Nikson Noronha, who runs a bakery in South Goa’s Benaulim, said he found the prices hiked when he bought vegetables to deliver to other residents of his ward.
“Onions, which cost ₹20 a kilo are now selling at ₹80. Cabbage, which sold at ₹30 is selling at ₹80,” said Noronha, who spent ₹8,000 to buy 80 kilos of potatoes, 50 kilos of onions and 15 kilos of cabbage, among other vegetables.
In other parts of the state too, residents, with the local panchayat, have set up supply chains by getting in touch with bakeries and meat suppliers, who are then delivering bulk orders.
The state has appointed 2,500 volunteers to distribute items like rice, lentils, flour, oil, pulses and salt. These items would be bought and sold at a fixed rate, and those availing of it would be required to pay for their supplies. The stock is expected to be procured from vendors or government-run godowns by the local legislator, in coordination with the department of civil supplies and the collector’s offices.
Despite the CM’S promise that grocery shops will remain open 24X7, essentials and vegetables were still not available uniformly across the state.
“I’ve been waiting in a queue since 7am. But the shop didn’t open, now I’m waiting at a general store hopeful of getting something at least. Rice, flour are out of stock,” Emmanuel Vaz, a resident of Merces on the outskirts of the capital Panaji, said.
This has prompted several residents to raise questions on whether hoarding of goods was causing their shortage and subsequent price hike. The state administration has formed a team of civil supplies inspectors to visit godowns and check for hoarding, black marketing and other unethical practices.
On Monday, stocks also ran out in several Goa Horticulture Corporation retail outlets, which sell vegetables at subsidised rates. All 1,200 outlets in the state were shut since March 22. The government said it would purchase essential food articles from the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited and Food Corporation of India, and was also prepared to airlift essential items from other states if needed.