The Union Home Ministry on Thursday issued Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on availability of essential goods during the lockdown period and asked state governments to ensure smooth functioning of people and services.
The ministry said there should be no interruptions in theservices of small retail shops, large organised retail stores and e-commercecompanies.
In the two-page SOP, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla saidessential commodities are available to people through small local retail shops,large organised retail stores and e-commerce companies.
The SOP said in order to ensure smooth functioning of thesethree types of operators, it is important that constituents of the supplychain, are also allowed to operate.
These constituents include suppliers of essential goods,including restaurants supplying home delivery of cooked food items; and facilitiesfor storage of such essential goods which, may be known as warehouse, godownetc.
It also allowed movement of transporters, drivers, loadersetc. Of essential goods from the place of manufacture to wholesalers orretailers.TheSOP said that such transportation may involve intra-city, inter-city in samestate or union territory or inter-state movement of essential goods; andmanufacturing units of essential goods including drugs, pharmaceuticals,medical devices, their raw material and intermediates.