Milk supply hit as vendors fail to make deliveries, online stores face commute curbs

Shortage of milk marked the first day of the nationwide lockdown in the city, said residents, who faced problems in buying dairy products from retailers and online

Shortage of milk marked the first day of the nationwide lockdown in the city, said residents, who faced problems in buying dairy products from retailers and online stores, as local vendors failed to make deliveries on Wednesday morning.

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Major milk suppliers say that the supply to the city is being ensured and have called upon retailers to procure it from them. A few online stores have suspended services, as their vehicles are being stopped by the police and the delivery persons are not being able to enter colonies.

By late evening, administration officials said they have resolved the issue. Amit Khatri, the deputy commissioner of Gurugram, said, “The issue has been addressed I don’t anticipate any problem now. Tie-ups have been with established with e-retailers and food vendors.”

All Gurugram police personnel have been directed to allow following delivery services by online platforms — Zomato, Flipkart, Amazon, Bluedart, Wow Express, Swiggy, Grofers, Big Basket, Milkbasket, Dunzo, Big Bazaar and Iffco Tokyo goods.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a complete lockdown for 21 days on Tuesday, several dairies and stores went out of stock as people rushed to buy milk and other dairy products. The situation persisted on Wednesday too.

Jigar Shah, a resident of DLF New Town Heights in Sector 86, said, “There are around 4,000 people living in this society and since Tuesday evening, all of us are facing acute shortage of milk. On Wednesday morning, local suppliers did not deliver milk and all online platforms have refused delivery.”

In Sector 85, residents said that suppliers were rationing milk. Akshat Sinha, a Sector 85 resident, said, “I allowed to purchase only half a litre at a nearby store.”

Anand Rungta, a resident of Sector 47, said, “I went to three stores and all of them were out of milk. In the fourth store, only five milk cartons of an unfamiliar brand were there. Out of choices, I purchased them.”

Mihir Kohli, a resident of DLF-5, said a dairy cooperative was out of milk packets by noon. “The cooperative shop usually has few customers throughout the day. However, there was a long queue on Wednesday and most items were sold out,” said Kohli.

A resident of DLF Phase-3 said that he too faced similar queues at milk shops in his vicinity. Shivam Gupta, of DLF Phase-3, said, “There was a queue for buying milk and I was not able to get the required quantity.”

Online stores have been sending messages to residents, saying they are unable to deliver milk due to the lockdown. An SMS sent by Milkbasket, an online dairy store, to its customers read, “This is after over five years and 30 million deliveries that we would not be able to deliver milk. We are in unnatural times. On Sunday, our vendors and employees were harassed and held by authorities for being on road.”

The worst-hit are residents who are dependent on online stores. “Online stores are not taking orders and their helpline numbers are not working either,” said Bikas Jha, a resident of DLF New Town Heights in Sector 86.

Another resident, Arun Mahajan, a resident of Sector 91, said, “In our society, many residents are banking on online stores, but they have stopped delivery. So, we have one retail shop outside our society where the demand increased on Tuesday evening as everyone flocked to the shop.”

Anant Goel, chief executive officer of Milkbasket, said that they are facing multiple problems as vehicles are not being allowed on roads and delivery boys are not being allowed inside colonies. “We have shut down as we are not able to operate. There is a multitude of problems. We are in talks with the authorities and are trying our best to resume the operations. We have supply to the warehouse but we cannot give it to our customers if we don’t have people in vehicles,” said Goel.

Shweta, executive assistant, FarmVille milk, said that their delivery boys were stopped by the police on Wednesday morning. “We supply around 1,000 litres of milk in the city. We are here to deliver milk and our services come under essential services, but I don’t know why we were stopped.”

Meanwhile, officials of the Haryana Dairy Development Co-Operative Federation Ltd. (HDDCFL), which supplies milk throughout the state via booths, said that they have enough milk supply but they cannot deliver to residents’ doorsteps.

GL Sharma, chairman, HDDCFL, said, “There are 72 milk booths in the city. We supply 1.5 lakh litres of milk in Gurugram daily. All our booths have sufficient supply, but retailers need to come and get it from our booths.”

Officials of Mother Dairy, a major milk supplier, said that they are also maintaining regular supply of milk to the city. “Since milk is an essential commodity, we are allowed to maintain the supply in our markets. We are working relentlessly to ensure that our customers don’t face any problem at this challenging time. As of now, the supply to all our 30 booths and 600 general trade outlets in Gurugram has been managed effectively,” a spokesperson for Mother Dairy said.