Few takers for govt’s new shelter homes in Delhi
NEW DELHI: Around 3:30pm on Sunday, Subedar Khan, the in-charge of Delhi government’s newly set up shelter home for migrant workers in East Delhi’s Ghazipur, is seen earnestly trying to reason with a group of men who were walking out of the facility, with their bags, after a meal. “You will be stuck if you try to move out of Delhi. The inter-state bus service is being stopped. Why do you want to risk your life by travelling in crowded buses? Don’t you know about the virus?” Khan told the men, who worked as masons in Delhi. He also handed them a pamphlet that listed the Do’s and Dont’s to avoid the spread of Covid-19.
“What will we do here when our families and friends have left for the village,” one of the men retorted, before the group dismissed Khan’s suggestion and walked out of the Ghazipur shelter that has been set up in a Delhi government school.
The facility, despite being a walking distance from the Delhi-up border, which on Saturday saw tens of thousands of migrant workers trying to cross to neighbouring states, had only had three occupants till 5pm on Sunday. It has a total of 21 shelter rooms - with the first floor for women and the ground floor for men. Later, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal urged all landlords not to pressure tenants to pay monthly rents. “If authorities find that landlords are pressuring tenants for rent, strict action will be taken.” .
NEWDELHI: Packaged snacks, biscuits and certain medicines have disappeared from shelves of stores in the city market since a 21-day lockdown was put in place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to check Covid-19.
According to pharmacists, medicines are not available in ample quantities at the stores. They, however, maintained that the shortage was because of distribution problems and they will be able to replenish their stock as soon as they obtain curfew passes and are able to send their staff to fetch more consignments.
Similarly, grocery store owners stated that items — such as biscuits, instant noodles, namkeen, packed juice, tomato puree, and soft drinks — were either out of stock or witnessing a curtailed supply in view of the lockdown. Lack of curfew passes with distributors, they said, was one of the essential reasons for supply trucks being held up at Delhi borders.
However, traders maintained that the supply and availability of essential items was ample.
“On the day the lockdown was announced, a lot of people indulged in panic buying and stocked up on essential medicines in large quantities. Now we are not receiving supplies from our distributors,” said Tarun
Chawla of Mediworld Pharmacy in Kailash Colony.
To deal with this situation, some pharmacies have started to cap the amount of medicine they sell to a customer at a time. Shikhar Gupta, of 3G Chemist in Defence Colony, said, “Those who have the money can purchase in bulk. But what about those who can’t? We have decided not to give more than two strips of medicine to anyone,” he said.
A similar situation was witnessed at grocery stores.
Traders said that even though essential items are available, certain commodities were disappearing from the shelves.
“Namkeens, noodles, and biscuits may not be essential, but these have become the most sold consumables. Sunday was the fifth day of the lockdown, but the supply of many of these items has been irregular,” said Navankur Dhama, a trader in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar.
Some retailers also said they were collecting stock directly from the distributors.
“We ourselves have to lift the goods from distributors as many of them are yet to get passes. In many cases, trucks of suppliers are held up at borders,” a grocery supermarket owner in Model Town, Paramveeer Bagga, said.
Delhi’s food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain assured that there was enough stock of essentials.