Lockdown forces Goa residents to scramble for food, medicines

PANAJI :Residents of Goa continue to face an acute shortage of supplies, including groceries and medicines ,three days after chief minister Pramod Sawant said that shops selling essential items would remain open 24X7.

Speaking to the press on Sunday, Sawant said that the food shortage was on account of wholesale dealers and suppliers being afraid to move their goods on account of police action. “Hoarding is not the (reason). We are ensuring these hurdles are eased,” he said.

“All grocery stores should stay open as long as possible. The godowns which are closed will have to open else we will send civil supplies inspectors to their doorstep. Stock has run out because the suppliers were afraid to move their supply. We have asked them to keep the food chain running,” Sawant said.

The CM also requested restaurants to keep their kitchens running so as to maintain the food supply chain.

Several residents across the state, and particularly North Goa’s Pilerne, Porvorim and Socorro, said that they were unable to buy supplies even after grocery shops re-opened on Friday.

“People are scrambling for food and the administration is completely overwhelmed and cannot cope. Others are exchanging and sharing the last of the vegetables among themselves while trying to help each other out and set up their own networks,” Sapna Sahani, a resident of AltoPilerne area of Porvorim in North Goa, said.

“We are working with suppliers who complain that they are facing issues in other states and hence are unwilling to risk bringing fresh stock,” A Potekar, dep

› We are working with suppliers who complain of issues in other states and hence are unwilling to risk bringing fresh stock to the state A POTEKAR, deputy collector of North Goa

uty collector of North Goa, said. He was unable to say when the issue would be resolved.

In South Goa too, local body representatives complained that the government had passed the buck onto them without the means to help out. “The government has asked to home deliver, but what will be delivered when there is no stock. Several grocery stores are willing to open but what will they sell when everything has run out,” Allwyn Jorge the sarpanch of the Carmona, a coastal village in South Goa, said.

On Saturday, the CM tweeted that online delivery of food via delivery services would be permitted, and that food buses providing meals to the needy had started running in the state.

Goa, which reported its first positive case 24 days after the first case of local transmission was reported in the country on March 2 — has been reeling under a supply shortage of essentials and a clampdown on movement, ever since the state observed the Janta Curfew on March 22, based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s televised appeal asking people to stay indoors voluntarily.