Chaotic When Thousands Of Residents Queue For Cooking Oil In Bengkulu

BENGKULU - The Bengkulu Department of Industry and Trade (Disperindag) held cooking oil operations in two locations on Jalan Belimbing Pasar Panorama and on Jalan Gandaria Pasar Panorama, Bengkulu City. Chaos broke out in queues of thousands of residents.

One of the residents of Jembatan Kecil Village, Ria Ibzan, said that she had been queuing since 07.30 WIB on Jalan Belimbing Pasar Panorama.

"During the distribution at the first location, the organizers did not make any rules for the community so that people jostled," said Ria, quoted by Antara, Saturday, March 5.

According to him, the organizers should have made rules for people who want to buy cooking oil so as not to cause crowds in accordance with the Bengkulu Provincial Government (Pemprov) rules to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But there was a crowd of people.

The same thing was also conveyed by Sumina. He admitted that he was disappointed and felt that the government had played tricks on him with the market operation which had moved locations twice.

"We were told to line up twice, we followed but in the end we couldn't. I feel like the government is being played with just because of two liters of cooking oil," he said.

Sumina explained that there had been no cooking oil in her house for two weeks, so she couldn't sell fried foods and switched to selling ice.

It is known, thousands of people in Bengkulu City queue for cooking oil for Rp. 12.5 thousand per liter.

In the midst of the distribution of cooking oil, there were pushing and shoving actions between the people, causing chaos.

However, finally at 10.12 WIB, the car carrying cheap cooking oil left the location due to unfavorable community conditions.