West Bengal: Supply hiccups remain, administration steps in

KOLKATA: The state administration stepped in on Thursday to ease food supply chain bottlenecks but with consumers still making panic purchase, stocks flew off the retailers’ shelves, making replenishment difficult due to transportation difficulties during the lockdown. The demand-supply mismatch became all the more conspicuous in the evening when prices of all essential commodities spiked.In several places, shortage of milk and bread continued.
The situation could improve on Friday with merchants in Posta assuring that they will open for business on Friday. Posta Merchants’ Association general secretary Biswanath Agarwal said all wholesale shops would function from Friday onwards to revive the supply chain.
But the assurance of operations in subject to availability of workforce. Wholesalers said they cannot assort and package food items without labourers, most of whom have left for their homes in neighbouring states. Posta and Burrabazar provide essential edibles to not just entire Bengal but also the neighbouring states. Even a day’s closure can impact supply in these areas and result in price escalation.
Retailers, on the other hand, said they were unable to ferry food items because mini-trucks were not available. Federation of Traders (West Bengal) general secretary Tarak Nath Trivedi said lack of small goods vehicles had impacted transportation from wholesale hubs to retail markets. “Most drivers are unwilling to operate fearing police coercion and arrest. Also, many drivers and helpers have left the city for their home because they don’t have a house here and no fixed place to eat,” said Trivedi.
Though the CM warned of stern action against those who impeded movement of essential commodities, complaints continued to pour in. Food and civil supplies minister Jyotipriya Mallick said he had received a few complaints and spoken to police. “There are some issues like identity of vendors that we hope to resolve shortly. We received calls from traders in Koley market about trucks carrying essential materials from districts being stopped at Burdwan and Dankuni. We called up the district police officials and ensured that these vehicles reached Kolkata,” said DC (EB) Biswajit Ghosh.
“In the absence of train services, vendors are hiring vehicles to bring vegetables to the markets, if they are forced to return, it would be very difficult to bring back the supplies again during the remaining lockdown period. Their loss will be mounting, factoring in the vehicle hiring charges,” said West Bengal Vendors’ Association president Kamal Dey.
The state government has put all kinds of food, e-grocers and their movement and transportation in the lockdown exempt list and has said these vendors need an authorisation from the local police or administration for unrestricted movement. Police had provided two phone numbers — 9432610446 and 9874903465 — for vendors to call up if they got stuck during their movement to and from wholesale and retail markets.
Joint CP (headquarters) Subhankar Sinha Sarkar said they did not receive any calls from vendors throughout the day. Police said they were fast-tracking request for authorisation letters for those involved in medicine, groceries, vegetables, fruits or are animal products delivery.
During the day, cops visited several markets. “We had sent our police teams across major markets and to grocery stores to collect reports. The flow of vegetables has increased and prices of vegetables have stabilized,” said an Enforcement Branch officer.
(With inputs from Dwaipayan Ghosh)