Maharashtra’s food security is not under threat with reserve stocks lasting up to seven months, senior officials said on Friday, hours after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a lockdown of the State.
Senior Home Department officials put in place an emergency plan, including meeting large traders and wholesale sellers in markets in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. At any given time, the government is prepared to provide two months’ grain stocks to fair price shops, while the reserves can last up to seven months if the lockdown persists, said officials who participated in a meeting to discuss possibilities of hoarding and black marketing in the wake of the coronavirus-related lockdown.
“We are prepared at all levels and have already provided stocks in advance for April and May to fair price shops. In order to curb the spread of coronavirus, which could also infect the beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS), we have directed shopkeepers to not carry out the beneficiaries’ biometric verification,” said Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Chhagan Bhujbal.
The deserted Siataburdi market in Nagpur on Friday after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed for closure of shops till March 31.
Senior Home Department officials said the police was directed to search large godowns and ensure no hoarding was carried out in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Several godowns were searched for the possibility of stockpiles.
“We searched two such facilities today and found nothing suspicious. We are closely monitoring all the vehicles moving in and out of markets as part of the preventive measures,” according to the Inspector General of Police (Konkan Range) Niket Kaushik.
Senior officials of the state Food and Civil Supplies Department said advisories have been issued orders to warn people against indulging in panic buying.
“The PDS facility is being made available on e-POS equipment for the period of the shutdown. This will not require the beneficiaries to put a finger or thumb on the e-POS equipment. There is no need to rush to shops to buy for now. We have goods that will last for the next seven months,” said a government official.
Until then, the official said, the government was “not taking into account a scenario where we may have to enforce the Essential Commodities Act against the traders found hoarding.”
