Many areas not getting essential goods

Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, March 26

Claims of the district administration of home delivery of essential commodities seem to be falling flat as residents in many parts have complained that they are not getting medicines, milk and grocery for their daily needs. There are reports that the milk agencies/companies have not ensured the supply of milk products.

2 held for roaming on road

The police have registered a case against the two persons for roaming on the road near Dandi Swami Chowk on Thursday. An FIR under section 188 of the IPC has been registered against them. They were identified as Gurdeep Singh and Sourav Singh, both residents of Baba Jivan Singh Nagar. The investigating officer, ASI Sukhraj Singh, both persons were arrested.

Grocery merchants given permits by the MC for home delivery also remained more or less inaccessible. Most of the phone numbers of “karyana” shops are either switched off or not reachable. Besides, a number of chemists could not make the arrangements required for the delivery of medicines on doorstep.

New admn list on “ludhiana.nic.in”

Meanwhile, the district administration has uploaded a new list of officials, who are responsible to check ward-wise arrangements for home delivery of essential commodities in Ludhiana city during curfew, on its website “ludhiana.nic.in”.

A chemist, on the condition of anonymity, said their pharmacy name has been included in the list without their consent. “Our store is located in a hospital and it is closed for two-three days, and we have yet to make arrangements as per the instructions given by the district administration. Our store boys are still not ready to deliver medicines on doorstep. However, we will make all possible efforts to start delivery of medicines at the earliest,” he said.

Another chemist said there was no stock of medicines and they couldn’t ensure supply of medicines as even the Pindi street market, where wholesale drugs stores are located, are lying closed.

A few residents also complained that the contact numbers of department stores had been wrongly mentioned or were not reachable. Ram Hari Meena said: “I am not running any department store. I have been receiving a lot of wrong phone calls since yesterday. The people are dialing my mobile number to contact Gurjeet Singh of a department store in Jawahar Nagar, Ludhiana. I don’t know who is Gurjeet Singh. It is sheer harassment. I appeal to the authorities concerned to display the correct number.”

A former councilor, Inder Aggarwal, whose wife is the councillor from ward 57 said: “Some karyana stores in the ward have delivered ration at homes but they have no more stock. Small-time shop owners are facing problems in getting supplies from wholesalers. The government should find out a better way to meet the daily demands of residents.”

Meanwhile, there are reports that the residents were supplied with ration, milk and vegetables in some areas. A resident at SKS Nagar said: “We got ration through home delivery after contacting a supplier. Besides, a banana seller also visited our area.”

Rajesh Goyal of Aggar Nagar said: “We got supply of milk in the morning. We had also ordered some grocery items today but the staff of a department store, which is listed on the district administration website, said there was a shortage of grocery items and these will be delivered tomorrow.”