Paranoid Jaipur residents start blocking vegetables vendors

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, April 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) As the lockdown continues, the people in the Rajasthan capital are turning quite apprehensive about Covid-19 and in some parts of the city are even refusing to buy vegetables and groceries.

They are locking the colony gates to prevent fruits and vegetable vendors from entering the area and many have even stopped visiting groceries.

Says Meenu Goyal, a resident of Vaishali Nagar, "We are mostly relying on pulses these days. We never know who is bringing vegetables, from where, and in what hygiene conditions. Hence, we have reduced vegetable consumption and are relying on stored grain and pulses."

S.K. Gupta, a retired engineer of the Rajasthan electricity board who heads the colony association in Chitrakoot-Jaipur, says, "Many new faces in the grab of vegetable vendors are seen in our colony these days. One needs to be careful and take precautions."

In a WhatsApp group, he has appealed people of the colony to check the Adhaar card of vegetable vendors before buying vegetables from them. "You should verify if the vegetable vendor is reliable," he wrote.

Even Vegetable Retail Agents Association president Rahul Tanwar recently raised a demand that credentials of vegetable vendors, whose number has seen sudden rise in colonies in the last few days, be checked.

He urged the administration to check their health and identity before allowing them to sell vegetables in colonies.

However, vendors are quite depressed due to steep decline in the sale of fruits and vegetables.

Says Vinesh Sharma, who has his setup in the Murlipura sabzi mandi, "Many people who ran street stalls of items, like momos, pani-poori and chat, have started selling vegetables to earn livelihood.

"It's sad that some people are shutting colony gates on them. They too are risking their lives to deliver fresh vegetables at their doosteps."

Pointing out the decline in vegetables sale as people are not allowed to visit mandis, Sharma said, "Now, the vegetable vendors are not being permitted inside the colonies. It's a matter of great worry.".

Anamika Pariwal, a psychiatrist, said these were testing times and people had learnt to enjoy frugal 'saal and roti' meals. "As the number of Covid-19 cases are keep increasing each day in Jaipur, people have confined themselves to their homes and refusing to let anything new in their house," she said.

According to district collectorate officials, vendors have been allowed to sell vegetables in colonies as it's an essential food commodity. "As such, there is no check on such sellers except in the walled city, which is under curfew," said Jaipur Collectorate PRO Rajnish Sharma.

Source: IANS