A man in his early 40s set up a makeshift shop that had milk, curd and butter packets on sale on the Science City-bound flank of EM Bypass, opposite Mani Square, on Thursday.

A small crowd had gathered in front of the stall. Some of the customers did not have masks on and most stood in violation of the physical distancing protocol.

The stall owner, who supplies milk packets door to door, told Metro in the evening that he had set up the stall around 3pm.

“I decided to set up the stall because I had some leftover stock,” the man said.

“I am aware a lockdown is in place but since I don’t have a refrigerator, the milk that remained unsold in the morning would have gone sour had I not sold it by the evening,” he said.