Supply of essential goods to Consumers not a problem during lock down in Odisha: Surendra Kumar

Bhubaneswar: There will not be any problem with availability of essential goods and commodities at the stores in Odisha even during this ongoing lock down, said State-level Coronavirus Monitoring Committee Chairman Surendra Kumar in Odisha.

In a press briefing today Surendra Kumar said that on behalf of Odisha govt he assures the 4.5 crore consumers of the state that there will not be any problem regarding supply of essential goods.

Kumar first thanked the Merchant Associations for their support and cooperation during lock down. He also thanked the 4.5 consumers of Odisha for having patience.

He intimated that during the initial days of lock down in Odisha a State level Coronavirus Monitoring Committee, constituting high level officials, was constituted to check any irregularity in supply of essential goods to the consumers. While he was made the chairman of this committee senior officials from seven departments are in this committee. The departments are Food Supply and Consumers Welfare, Housing and Urban Development, Transport commissioner, DG of Police, Commercial tax commission and Panchayati Raj dept. The committee aimed to see the food security of Odisha citizens during lock down.

Accordingly, the committee analyzed exact market statistics of demand, any hurdle in supply, issues related to goods carrier owners. Initially there was little problem regarding movement of non essential goods carriers. However, Odisha CM wrote Prime Minister to allow free movement of both, essential goods and non-essential goods and the centre allowed it.

“We interacted with the associations who deal in goods. Even we interacted with such associations in the district level. We also told them about social distancing,” he said.

Finally, Kumar requested consumers to not to visit the market for multiple times and said that they should go to market twice a week.