NO EFFECT OF ‘AMPHAN; IN ROURKELA BUT MARKET IS SOMEHOW AFFECTED OUT OF FEAR

Rajesh Mohapatra,Odishbarta

ROURKELA:”Amphan” has no effect in Rourkela till the time of writing this report except bad weather and slight drizzling of rain but it affected the coastal belt as predicted, severely in Bhadrak and Balasore.

The landfall is expected to be at 5.00pm in Sunderban but it could not do much damage till now. Being staying out of coastal belt we are saved out of this dreaded cyclonic storm. Anyways, the vegetable market is affected because out of fear of storm and heavy wind many small vegetable vendors have not come to the markets in different areas in Rourkela Township. Mostly the vegetable vendors are from nearby rural areas and they earn their livelihood by selling vegetables grown in their respective agricultural lands. They also apprehend that this rain will stop customers coming outside their home, hence, whatever they will bring will be spoiled without sale.

Many other shopkeepers have also closed their shops, assuming customer will not come and no business transaction will take place, hence, staying at home is the best thing, what they have been experiencing since lockdown has started. During this corona period, when customer will not come, then risking lives by stretching out is absurd. The fact of the matter is repeated warning from Govt. through announcements to take precautions for corona has pushed them caged at home and after finding few corona positive cased in Rourkela alarmed the situation further and they want to keep their family safe. There are few places in Rourkela where many of the people live there is not taking any alert from Govt. seriously and taking their lives very easy by moving outside without any protecting gear for corona, one such area is Timber colony and road touching Malgodown area. The distance between the Rourkela containment zone is hardly 500 meters but administration stays blind on this.