Govt relaxes restrictions on transportation of goods

Union home ministry allows transportation of all goods, without distinction of essential and non-essential items

NEWDELHI:THE Union home ministry said on Sunday that all goods in addition to essential commodities will be allowed to move across states, relaxing rules in order to unclog highways where hundreds of trucks have been stuck since Tuesday, when the government ordered a nationwide lockdown in order to stop the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

The latest directive was among two communications sent to all states, laying down more clarifications on what constitutes as essential commodities and services that can be carried out during the lockdown. The ministry also reiterated that states need to ensure the lockdown is enforced strictly and the movement of migrant labours is halted.

“With the first addendum, transportation of all goods, without distinction of essential and non-essential, have been allowed,” said the letter sent on Sunday to all state chief secretaries by Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla.

The reference to the first addendum was to an order issued on March 25 by the home ministry, adding “inter-state movement of goods and transport for inland and exports” as one of the exceptions in the rule banning all air, rail and road transport.

“Allowing transportation of all goods would mean that truckers stuck on highways across the country after the lockdown would be able to reach their destination. It would also let truckers who are not stuck and without items, freeing up more capacity for essential services,” said a government official aware of the discussions to add the exceptions, asking not to be named.

“Should the need arise for mass transport of items to any corner of the country, transportation capacity would hence be available,” the official added.

While non-essential items will be moved, the ban on their sale — including through websites such as Amazon and Flipkart — continues.

Home secretary Bhalla and Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba also spoke to chief secretaries and state police chiefs on Sunday morning, when it was communicated that individual district officials will be held responsible for the implementation of the lockdown.

The home ministry reiterated that groceries, earlier classified as an essential commodity, will also include items such as handwash, surface cleaners, battery cells, toothbrush and other oral care products.

The services of the Red Cross have also been included in the list of those exempted from the ban.

The letter also referenced other directions in the second order, which include prohibiting home owners from seeking rent from people for a month and employers from withholding salaries.

“Our top priority at this time is delivery products that customers need the most. We continue to resume services gradually, adding in more cities as we get the necessary clearances and passes from the local authorities. We are first serving existing orders for essential products and accepting new orders for these items only. We continue to work with the Central and local authorities to urgently enable us to deliver essential products to customers, so that they can continue to stay home and keep India safe,” digital retailer Amazon said in a statement.

NEW DELHI: The national transporter will resume parcel train services in a bid to increase supply of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment and groceries in small parcel sizes, in addition to freight trains that are already plying on the Indian Railways’ network.

The decision to boost supply of medical equipment comes after the Centre formed a logistics committee for transportation for medical supply.

The committee includes secretaries of ministries including transport, civil aviation, shipping, railways, heath, drugs and textiles.

“The decision to run special parcel trains will help in movement of small quantities as well of essential items like dairy products, medical equipment and medicines, groceries, edible oil and other necessary items,” the ministry of railways said.

“Supply of essential items in small parcel sizes is going to be very important during the lockdown in the wake of Covid-19. In order to fill this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick masstransportation across the nation for the e-commerce entities and other customers, including state governments, to transport such goods,” the ministry said.

The national carrier has loaded 1,24 lakh wagons carrying essential items, including grains, vegetables, fruits, salt, edible oil, sugar, milk, coal and petroleum products over the past five days. On March 27, 34,648 wagons carried supplies to keep the supply chains functional.

MEERUT: An eight-month pregnant woman and her husband were offered monetary help and an ambulance in Meerut to cover the rest of their journey from Saharanpur to Bulandshahr after they were forced to walk over 100 kms on their way home when the latter’s employer turned them out without any money. Local residents Naveen Kumar and Ravindra spotted the exhausted couple, Vakil and

Yasmeen, when they arrived at Meerut’s Sohrab gate bus stand on Saturday and informed Prempal Singh, a sub inspector at Nauchandi police station, about their problem.

Ashutosh Kumar, the Nauchandi police station in charge, said Singh and the residents gave the couple food and some cash besides arranging for the ambulance to drop them to their village—amargarh in Syana.

Kumar said Vakil was employed at a factory and covered the 100 km distance with his wife over two days. Yasmeen told police they lived in a room the factory owner had offered them. “But he asked us to vacate it after the lockdown and refused to give us any money to go our village,” she said. With no alternative, the couple started walking on Thursday from Saharanpur to reach their village. Yasmeen said that they had no food for the past two days because of closure of restaurants along the highway. The three-week lockdown announced on Tuesday to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has left millions of migrant labourers jobless and forced them to walk hundreds of kilometres to their villages in absence of any means to sustain themselves.