Hyderabad: Sudden announcement of 10-day lockdown led to a frenzy among Eid shoppers who jostled with one another to make purchases not only for Ramzan but the impending 10-day lockdown. Madness was all the more among purchasers as they suspected lockdown could even be extended further.
Traffic turned chock-a-block in Old City when people already making purchases for Eid-ul-Fitr on Friday were joined in by an outpouring of people to buy essential commodities following announcement of lockdown from Wednesday 10 a.m.
Observers fear this rush itself could rocket up rising cases of Coronavirus.
Even before evening could set in, there were long traffic jams in Old City. Most push card and table vendors ran out of stock before the evening itself, as they were not prepared for the rush that followed announcement of the lockdown.
Physical distancing went for a toss. Although there will be a relaxation of four hours for purchasing essential items like groceries and vegetables, people feared that like last year, they will not be allowed to venture out.
Long queues of vehicles could be seen on main roads. It took citizens hours to reach their destinations. Logjam persisted in Dar-ul-Shifa, Shah Ali Banda, Hussaini Alam, Chaderghat, Khilwat, Mallepally, Asif Nagar, Mehdipatnam and Tolichowki areas. Even Golconda, Jahanuma, Dabeerpura and Kalapathar were not spared.
Traffic police deployed additional personnel to regulate traffic, which eased only in the night.
