Goa: Senior citizens bear brunt of panic-shopping

PANAJI: Bhatulem-based senior citizen Mohan Rivankar walked around the Panaji fish market clutching his empty shopping bag on Tuesday. Sweat trickled down his forehead at 10.30am as he raced against the 11am market closure deadline, but to no avail.
“I am very disappointed to see that there is absolutely no fish,” he said, helplessly.
While senior citizens and persons with underlying health conditions are more susceptible to coronavirus, many were left in desperation as fish and beef stalls were stripped clean within hours by panic shoppers when the Panaji market briefly opened from 6am to 11am on Tuesday.
Fish was sold out well before 10am while stock of beef was exhausted within a couple of hours of stores opening.
“My family and I will have to make do with some dry fish at home,” an obviously worried Rivankar said, asking, “How long will this continue?”
Messais Tavares, 71 and his wife Silvia travelled from Ribandar to shop for groceries. “We anticipated a long queue, so we rushed and purchased whatever we could,” said Tavares who picked up vegetables instead of meat.
Reacting to the shortage, Panaji mayor Uday Madkaikar said, “Fish and meat vendors were not entirely sure that the market would be open on Tuesday which is why only a few showed up.”
Fish sales started at 6am in the Panaji market after vendors picked up fish boxes from boat owners at 3am from the Malim jetty. They were selling three mackerels at Rs 300, kingfish at Rs 800 and sole fish (lepo) at Rs 300. “Boat owners sold us the fish at a slightly higher rate due to which we had to increase retail rates,” one vendor said.
“For the first time in years, we sold off everything. All the fish was purchased by home consumers alone,” fish vendor Vijay Chauhan said.
Chicken, too, sold quickly on Tuesday despite last week’s difficulties amid Covid-19 and H1N1 fears. Prices too shot up to Rs 150 per kg as opposed to Rs 100 last week.