E-com majors suspend services as local officials stop deliveries

With the lockdown shutting down factories, ONGC has cut natural gas production by up to one-tenth as customers refused to take supplies. ONGC, which produced 64.5 million standard cubic metres of gas per day till earlier this week, has reduced the flow to 59.8 mmscmd on Wednesday, and will further cut by 3 mmscmd more on Thursday. IOC said it is cutting down its refineries by one-fourth to align production to demand.

E-commerce players, including e-grocers, suspended their services on Wednesday, the first day of the nationwide lock-down. They were unable to deliver essential items due to the clamp down by local authorities on warehouses, supply chain and delivery persons.

The central government had recognised the role played by e-commerce in helping citizens remain at home and maintain social distancing. However, ecommerce players are finding it tough to get essential items, like vegetables, fruits and medical supplies, delivered to the customers.

The companies said the transit of materials through inter-state borders is being blocked, warehouses are being forcefully shut and delivery boys are being prevented from fulfilling orders. Due to this, e-grocers like BigBasket and Grofers were declining to take orders on Wednesday and were cancelling the existing orders. Amazon Pantry and Flipkart too suspended their services. "We will be back soon," most of the players posted on their websites.

"One thing that will help us and other grocery delivery companies is better

coordination between the Centre and state, and between the state and local police, to ensure that our

delivery vans and bikes don't get stopped by the police, so that we can deliver grocery essentials without

any interruptions," said BigBasket spokesperson.

"Despite government declaring food delivery as essential, we are facing hardships in continuing our operations. Please bear with us as we are working hard to unblock local authority hurdles," online seafood and meat retailer Frestohome said in a message to the consumers.

While e-commerce players are finding it tough to handle the surge in orders, clampdown by local authorities is another challenge.

"Over the last few days, we faced a few hiccups in our operations which led to a backlog of around four lakh orders. However, the local authorities are helping us in resuming our operations. We are closely working with them and with their support, we will soon start accepting orders on our platform,' said Albinder Dhindsa, Cofounder and CEO, Grofers.

In many states, the local authorities do not have clarity as to what all are essential items.

"We are working with the central government and local authorities, asking them to help us urgently with detailed on-ground operating procedures, to ensure delivery of priority goods like household staples, health and hygiene products...safely across the country to our customers' homes without any disruption," said Amazon spokesperson.