COVID in Mumbai: ‘Times are hard, everyone is scared for their life’

As yet another fresh harsher set of COVID19related restrictions hit the state on Thursday evening Friday dawned with deserted streets across the city People were seen rushing to buy essentials in the morning and crowds petered out by 1130 am In the different directions that midday reporters fanned out most of the city wore a sullen lookA boy sells stickers meant for vehicles engaged in essential services at Western Express Highway on FridayWestern suburbsIn the western suburbs the entire stretch of the vegetable market located in Andherirsquos Four Bungalows was shut not a single vendor was seen on the road The fish market adjacent to it did not have any of the usual women fisherfolk going about their businessOnly the stretch near Kokilaben Hospital and Gyan Kendra School had some traffic with multiple cars having pulled up in the lane next to the hospital and waiting at the signalA massive Versova police check post was set up towards VersovaYari Road near Good Shepherd Church police were seen enquiring with people who were out ldquoWe are taking note of all the people roaming about without a valid reasonrdquo said a cop A couple of bikes approaching the nakabandi promptly took a Uturn after seeing the copsThe Versova and Yari Road belt which has multiple meat markets and vegetable vendors was empty as well The stretch near the local mosque was devoid of peopleThe Western Express Highway between Andheri and Bandra had at least two nakabandis What did stand out was children selling yellow red and green essential services stickers to commutersNorthern suburbsSuburbs of Dahisar Borivli Kandivli were mostly deserted on Friday with hardly any movement even near junctions or railway stations Closed shops were one of the major reasons for this Indicating that the 7 am to 11 am time restriction is working entire markets even those for vegetables were closed Huge markets such as Borivalirsquos BMC vegetable market outside the station on the western side was closed too just like the 2020 lockdown ldquoFrom last timersquos experience we were under the impression that we would continue in this lockdown too But it is very strict While markets are kept closed vendors too on their own have decided to adhere to the guidelines The situation is indeed difficult and everyone is caring for their liferdquo said Omprakash Gupta a vegetable vendor who was waiting in anticipation of a few customers after closing his stall With home deliveries allowed grocery stores kept their shutters halfopen Some citizens took advantage of this fact and finished lastminute shoppingEastern suburbsRoads and markets in the eastern suburbs of Mulund and Ghatkopar remained crowded till around 1130 am after which crowds started to decrease The fish market in Mulund East and West too remained open with Friday crowds thronging ldquoFish is a fresh catch and we got a smaller stock so that there are no leftovers We will need to shut it by 11 amrdquo said vendor Manohar KoliTirupathi Dry Fruit vendor in Ghatkopar whose shop also keeps groceries said that he had a huge list of homedelivery orders throughout the day ldquoWe have hired one person especially for this His job is only to go and deliver as per the orders that the shop gets between 11 am and 7 pm There is no other option The shop is kept shutrdquo Ramnik Seth saidMeanwhile police had barricaded the busy market streets at Mulund which had been found to be crowded during the last lockdown The RRT Road JS Road and station road junctions had been barricaded with bamboos and metal sheets11am7pmTime during which home deliveries from shops are allowed