No need to panic, enough rice stock in state: Dealers

“The State government had relaxed the norms for agriculture-related activities and rice mills are back to normal. There is sufficient stock of rice as interstate movement of rice is also permitted,” said AC Mohan, secretary of the association.

After the 21-day lockdown was announced, there was complete panic in the State as people went for panic buying in the fear that there might be shortage of essential commodities. Due to the mad rush, the prices of essential commodities increased exponentially.

Due to the lockdown, the agricultural activities came to a halt and there was fear that there might be shortage of food. Even political parties like the MDMK and farmers’ organisations urged the State to relax norms for agricultural activities following which the government allowed agriculture related activities and vehicular movement for carrying agricultural produce.

However, as the situation was not back to normal, there is still fear among people about the supply of rice and other essential commodities. Mohan said that all the rice bags of quantity 25 kg, 10 kg and 5 kg are available in the shops and people need not go for panic buying.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had also said that the State government had ensured that all the essential commodities are available in the State but as the trucks carrying essential commodities are not operated in sufficient numbers, the prices might be high but they too would cool down in the coming days as steps are being taken to operate more trucks