The Hudhud panic and the sudden disappearance of essential commodities from market came as a double jeopardy for the denizens here.
Soon after the news about the cyclone spread, people went into frenzy given their past experiences. They resorted to panic buying resulting in a big rush of buyers in front of grocery shops and vegetable markets. This was enough for some unscrupulous traders to make money, who kept hoarding food items, vegetables, candles and kerosene, etc. All this took place even as the cyclone was to take about 48 hours to have a possible landfall in the State’s coast.
“looking at the frenetic attitude of the people in buying food items and other necessary things in advance, I also was prompted to store those things for myself. I got sure that there would be a terrific cyclone. lest I should keep enough stock at house, I may have to face trouble during the time of crisis,” said Bipin Bihari Mohapatra of GGP Colony who was carrying a big load of groceries, potato and onion on a trolley rickshaw on Wednesday.
Bipin’s phobia about the storm was shared by hundreds others. Be it the grocery shops, daily vegetable markets, medicine outlets or oil filling stations, buyers just made a beeline for them to lay their hands on enough.
Many grocery shops ran dry of several items like rice, flour, dal, salt, oil, flattened rice, sugar, candles and match box. They vanished all of a sudden or went scarce; nobody has a clue who were behind it.
A shopkeeper in Rasulgarh square said on Wednesday night that most of his stock had dried due to huge buys. He said that even impatient people ran to the trucks before they unloaded items for his godown and jostled and howled about there to get different things. He, however, confided that the situation would be normal in a day or two depending on a confirmation about the cyclone hitting the State.
The vegetable markets witnessed unprecedented scenes. Potato and onion were almost scarce on Wednesday evening in several areas including Unit 1. Whatever left was sold at Rs 40-Rs 50. Despite the assurance of the Civil Supply department that all steps were being taken to rein in the hoarders and normalize the supply and prices of potato, the scarcity was a cruel joke. However, on Thursday morning, the potato was making a comeback, though slowly. It was being sold at Rs 40 a kg at many places.
A potato vendor at the Kochilei daily market at Rasulgarh chuckled, “Sir, it was very hard to collect this much of potato, indicating at a few bags.” He was selling potato of a very bad quality at Rs 40 a kg which nobody would pay Rs 20 in normal time.
“Cyclone is a plea to hike rates, which is done despite the common people resenting it. But what is the Government doingIJ Every time there is a cyclone warning, hoarding takes place and several eatables vanish from the market days before and after the calamity. It means there is a racket which suddenly becomes active involving several elements, including traders, black-marketers and Government officials. After all, the commodities that vanish from market do not vanish from the earth. They are hoarded somewhere. But the Government agencies are not all that active and sincere to check the trend and provide relief to the people,” said an intellectual here.