MONITOR PRICES AND AVAILABILITY OF ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES: CENTRE TO STATES

NEW DELHI : The central government has asked all states to monitor the availability and prices of essential commodities following concerns from some quarters amid a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a communication from the consumer affairs ministry said.

The consumer affairs ministry’s price monitoring cell is keeping an eye on prices and multiple wings are overseeing the demand-supply situation of daily use items, an official familiar with the matter said.

This follows a letter sent to principal secretaries of states on April 15 by the additional secretary in the consumer affairs ministry, Nidhi Khare, that spelt out guidelines to ensure essential supplies are not hampered due to restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic.

In that letter, the Centre advised all states to form teams in every district comprising officials from the civil supplies department, local police and the food safety department for “effective surveillance and enforcement activities in order to avoid a demand-supply mismatch, hoarding and exorbitant pricing of essential supplies”.

While officials from the ministry have been holding daily meetings with states through video conferencing to monitor movement and availability of essential items, the states have been asked to keep groceries and pharmacies out of all restrictions, including Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, officials familiar with the matter said.

Most states, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, have imposed restrictions on social movement as a relentless spike in the number of cases continues. While some states have introduced complete lockdowns, others have clamped night curfews.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on the Covid-19 situation on Monday, a day after the country recorded over 250,000 new infections and more than 1,700 fatalities.