NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant is trying to ensure that e-commerce deliveries of essential products do not get impacted due to any action from the local authorities even as the government has exempted online deliveries of such goods including food, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment amid lockdown. However, despite the exemption, Grofers and BigBasket had to shut down their services due to the restrictions imposed by the government authorities. “We regret the inconvenience caused, we are not operational due to restrictions imposed by local authorities on the movement of goods in spite of clear guidelines provided by central authorities to enable essential services. We are working with the authorities to be back soon,” BigBasket tweeted on Wednesday.
Grofers Co-founder Albinder Dhindsa also tweeted on Tuesday that the company’s warehouse in Faridabad was closed by “local law enforcement.” This would impact over 20,000 households in Faridabad and Delhi, he added. In response, Kant tweeted that the required action is being taken to resolve the supply chain issue. “I have spoken to CS & DGP, Haryana. They have taken immediate action to ensure that supply chains efficiently function for the citizens.” Kant also came to the rescue of BigBasket given the government guidelines has put day-to-day delivery of goods out of the lockdown bracket. “I will act on it by getting in touch with concerned authorities & sorting it out. Govt guidelines exempt them. We will ensure that citizens are not impacted.
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The nationwide lockdown announced by PM Modi on Tuesday for three weeks has caused confusion on the ground as delivery personnel of healthcare products, food, daily essentials from companies including MilkBasket, Zomato, Grofers etc reportedly faced police action. “Trust in online retailers, e-pharmacy and food delivery is a must at this point of time. We have this massive infra to be used in this critical time. Scheduled timely delivery will go a long way in removing the sense of panic,” said Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst, Forrester. On the other hand, Flipkart has announced the complete suspension of all services while Amazon has restricted services to ‘high priority’ products like household staples, health and hygiene products, sanitizers, baby formula, and medical supplies. The two companies had announced the development on their respective apps/blogs.