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Day 2 of sealing: Deliveries still hampered in hot spots, vendors allege police harassment
The delivery of essential items to 13 Covid-19 hot-spot areas in Ghaziabad was hampered for the second day of the intensive lockdown, announced by the Uttar Pradesh
The delivery of essential items to 13 Covid-19 hot-spot areas in Ghaziabad was hampered for the second day of the intensive lockdown, announced by the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday.
Residents in these clusters complained that they were not receiving essential items at doorstep, as promised by the government, while vendors roped in to make these deliveries said their distribution network was hampered by several administrative bottlenecks and delivery persons accused the police of harassing them.
Under the intensive lockdown, 13 hot-spot areas of Ghaziabad were sealed on April 9 and will remain so till the morning of April 15. According to official figures, the 13 hot spots in Ghaziabad have a population of 74,208.
On Wednesday night, more than 24 hours after the intensive lockdown was announced, the Ghaziabad district administration roped in multiple vendors for each hot spot areas to supply milk, medicines, vegetables and grocery items.
“One of the two milk vendors for our high-rise told us that they could supply only 500 litres of which will be insufficient for 1,300 families. However, our earlier vendor who supplied milk was roped in to offset the shortfall. The designated vegetable vendor told us that he will be able to supply us only by 3pm Friday and residents kept waiting for delivery,” Mukesh Kumar, a resident from Oxy Home, said.
The high-rise is located near Tila Morh behind the Hindon airbase and has about 6,000 residents.
“The designated chemist also was unable to make deliveries, while the grocery vendor told us that he is short of delivery persons. So for the second consecutive day, residents are struggling to daily need items,” Kumar said.
Rajiv Mishra, the business head (retail) of Gopaljee Ananda, a dairy company, said milk supplies in city areas were better but his delivery persons faced issues with the police during distribution.
“There are a lot of checks on the road and delivery persons are not allowed to move to rural areas. They are harassed by police and so they refuse to go to such areas. So far, we have deployed 25 delivery persons on motorcycles and have a capacity to scale it up to 100 or 125. But police must also cooperate so that the supply chain is not hampered,” Mishra said.
He added that freezers have also been placed in a few high-rises.
“We have informed the administration officials about this but the problems persist. There is another problem --- many delivery persons have left due to lockdown. In areas such as Masuri, we have been able to provide only 200-250 litres of milk on Thursday as a result,” Mishra said.
Masuri near NH-9 is the biggest of the 13 hot spots in Ghaziabad with a population of about 50,000 living in 5,000 houses. Residents here complained that they were not able to get milk or vegetable supplies ever since intensive lockdown kicked in.
“We have been able to supply about 45 crates to areas such as Masuri. Each crate has 12 litres of milk. The supply in other areas is streamlined with the help of our company vehicles and also the vehicles deployed by our distributors,” Sharad Garg, senior superintendent (infrastructure development), Mother Dairy, said.
Some other retail outlets which are designated to supply to areas such as Raj Nagar Extension and Nandgram, which are among the 13 hot spot areas, said shortage of delivery persons is a major impediment.
“We received no orders from Nandgram and only about five orders from Raj Nagar Extension on Thursday. We just have three delivery persons and none of them was available on Wednesday. Only one arrived on Thursday. So the distribution has been affected,” Krishan Kumar, an employee of a retail chain deployed for doorstep delivery, said.
Residents of high-rises such as Savior Park said their deliveries regularised on Thursday, unlike the previous day. “The deliveries on Thursday were streamlined and even milk vans and garbage vans were allowed in. Authorised vegetable vendors were made deliveries by Thursday afternoon,” Sandeep Sharma, a resident of Savior Park in Mohan Nagar, said.
The high-rise has about 800 flats, occupied by about 2,500 people. It was sealed on March 28 after a couple tested positive for Covid-19 and again, after the intensive lockdown was announced.
“To ensure proper supply, we have roped in magistrates and also informed the local councillors and RWAs. Milk freezers have been installed at KDP High-rise in Raj Nagar Extension and Savior Park. Places facing water issues have also been provided with packaged water. About 3,400 litres of milk, 10 quintals of fruits, 21 quintals of vegetables and seven quintals of ration were supplied till date. About 128 calls were received by us requesting medicines and these were catered to,” district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said.
Superintendent of police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said he will look into complaints of police harassing delivery staff.
“We will speak to the vendor and get all issues rectified. It has already been communicated that no essential supply will be hampered. It has also come to light that delivery persons are fearful of going to hot spot areas due to fear of contracting the virus,” he said.
