There was chaos in Dambulla town this morning (26) as people flocked to buy essentials after the curfew was temporarily lifted. All roads leading into town were thronged with vehicles filled with people going to shops and the economic centre.
Only a few supermarkets and pharmacies were seen practicing social distancing guidelines for their customers.
At the economic centre, prices of vegetables skyrocketed by as much as 300% due to the large number of buyers. Businessmen who came from afar complained that groups of middlemen were purchasing large stocks of produce brought by vegetable farmers and then selling these same stocks at exhorbitant prices at the economic centre.
Some traders who were acting as middlemen were seen stopping vegetable farmers taking their produce to the econonic centre enroute and purchasing their stocks by the tractor and lorry loads. They then sold these same stocks at much higher prices at the economic centre.
There were long lines of people waiting to enter the Lanka Sathosa outlet in Dambulla town. People however, complained that after spending hours in line to get into the store, they found upon entering that it did not have many essential food items including dhal, salmon, wheat flour, potatoes and onions.
Meanwhile, there were also complaints that the Osu Sala in Dambulla town also opened very late. However, it emerged later that the reason for this was that employees of the Osu Sala could not get to the location to open the pharmacy due to the heavy traffic that had developed on all access roads leading into town.
Text and Pix by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa
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