Covid-19 rules ignored at TCB truck sale centres

Huge crowds of buyers were seen on Monday in front of sales centres of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) at a time when the government issued strict restrictions to contain Covid-19 infections. 

The gatherings hardly followed Covid-19 hygiene rules, including social distance, posing a high risk of spreading Covid-19 infections. 

The TCB started selling soybean oil, lentil, and sugar across the country to low-income groups at a subsidised rate amid the Covid-19-induced lockdown and ahead of Eid-ul-Adha.

Buyers put themselves at risk of contracting the virus while buying the goods as they hardly maintained social distance.   

Dealers said they had requested buyers to buy goods in accordance with hygiene rules and maintain physical distance while standing in queues, but they had paid no heed. 

Photo: TBS

Customers complain that they are clinging to each other as the queues of customers are getting longer due to delay in delivery of goods from trucks and not maintaining the serial.

This correspondent witnessed the same scenario in front of TCB trucks at several places in the capital including Moghbazar, Farmgate, Kanthalbagan and Mirpur. Although there were instructions to sell and buy products in accordance with the hygiene rules, no one was seen to follow them.

Most had face masks but hardly maintained physical distance. Many were seen not wearing masks in the right place and many take off masks after a while.

The Business Standard found a large gathering of people in front of the Moghbazar intersection in front of a TCB truck at noon.  When asked why not following hygiene rules in selling goods, a few employees of the dealer started instructing buyers to fix the queue.  But they failed to control the huge crowd.

Delwar Hossain, a dealer of TCB truck sales in Moghbazar, told TBS, "We have requested customers to comply with hygiene rules but they ignore it. The police also could not control them. "

Nazma Khanam, a buyer who came to Moghbazar to buy goods from TCB's truck, told TBS "I have been in the queue, wearing the mask ever since. But it was hard to maintain distance in such a crowd. "

Another buyer, Sadrul Alam, told TBS: "I've been standing for over an hour. The queue is just getting longer as people in the truck are giving goods to many outsiders without maintaining the serial. "

Jamil Hossain, who came to Mirpur to buy goods from TCB's truck, told TBS, "We came here to buy oil and lentils at subsidised rate amid the lockdown. I wear a face mask, what else do I follow? "

According to TCB, the goods will be sold through 450 trucks in all metropolitan cities, districts and upazilas across the country. There are 80 trucks in Dhaka City and 20 in Chattogram City.
Sugar will be available at Tk55 per kg, lentils at Tk55 per kg and soybean oil at TK100 per litre.

The sales will continue till 29 July though it will be closed during the Eid-ul-Azha holidays. 

TCB Information Officer and spokesperson Mohammad Humayun Kabir told TBS, "We have strictly told every dealer to follow the hygiene rules. We have also given instructions to our employees to monitor it. But people do not want to follow it. " 

"We have written to each police station to cooperate with us in their respective areas as it is not possible to maintain everything due to manpower shortage."

The pressure was a bit high as truck sales started on Monday after a long break. There will be a little stress in the next few days, he added. 

Alongside the TCB, the food ministry also sells goods in trucks at subsidised prices.