After delivery personnel of e-commerce, online grocery platforms being stopped by the police, and the confusion on essential goods that ensued, Minister for Commerce, Piyush Goyal held a meeting with the representatives of the ecommerce companies to hear out their grievances.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has opened up a dedicated control room which will monitor the transportation and delivery of goods, manufacturing, delivery of essential commodities to citizens and the difficulties being faced by various stakeholders during the lockdown.
The related logistics partners were also present at the meeting with Piyush Goyal. The minister later tweeted that the government is committed to ensuring that essential items reach people in their homes without any hassles.
If any of the stakeholders in these areas face any difficulty, they have been asked to call up a number 011-23062487 so that it can be sorted out. This includes the manufacturers, transporters, distributors and ecommerce companies.
For those facing difficulty in getting imported goods falling within these categories, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade has also started a similar facilitation desk for importers.
It will now be over to the police administration in each state to sensitise their personnel right down to the last cop on the street to ensure that the factories making essential goods are allowed to function, their raw materials and finished goods etc. allowed to be transported and the distributors not disturbed in any manner. It may appear complicated since there could be a factory making aluminium sheets that appear non-essential but it may be meant for a pharmaceutical company to make tablet strips or for food packaging. Extraordinary times require the administration to step up and take extraordinary measures.