STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Panic buying of potato and onion revisited Guwahati on Sunday, this time around by retailers. And the process, the worst – not maintaining social distancing – took place right in Guwahati. As if to cap it all, a section of the buyers were seen without face masks.
No sooner the Chief Secretary made it clear that 'wholesalers of grocery items are allowed to replenish stocks of retailers on Sunday and Tuesday between 12 noon and 6 pm', many retailers and wholesalers rushed to Fancy Bazar and Ganeshguri to procure onion and potato. Such a panic buying was started in Guwahati since the Chief Secretary allowed all standalone shops to do business on all working days from Monday to Friday. The metropolitan city wore a deserted look since June 28 when the lockdown had been imposed in the evening. However, the market areas in Fancy Bazar and Ganeshguri witnessed huge crowds that defied all lockdown rules to procure onion and potato on Sunday. The crowd of people came to such a pass that the police had to come and brought the situation under control.
Earlier in the day, visiting the onion and potato markets at Fancy Bazar, State Food and Civil Supplies Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury said that the State had no dearth of potato and onion stock. A wholesaler of Ganeshguri said that the wholesale rate of onion is Rs 21 per kg and that of potato is Rs 24 per kg.
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