Centre advises states to monitor essential supplies - News, India news, latest news, entertainment news

 The Centre asked all states to monitor availability and prices of essential commodities amid a raging second wave of the Covid pandemic following “concerns” from some quarters, according to a communication sent to states from the consumer affairs ministries.

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The consumer affairs ministry’s price monitoring cell is keeping an eye on prices and multiple wings are overseeing the demand-supply situation of daily-use items, including foodstuff, an official said.

Teams in the ministry have been holding a daily video conference with states on movement and availability of essential items.

This comes on the back of a letter sent out to principal secretaries of states on April 15 by the additional secretary in the consumer affairs ministry, Nidhi Khare, spelling out guidelines and measures states and Union Territories must take to ensure essential supplies are not hampered due to lockdowns and curfews to contain the pandemic.

The Centre has advised all states to form a joint team in every district comprising officials from civil supplies department, local police and the food safety department for “effective surveillance and enforcement activities in order to avoid a demand-supply mismatch, hoarding and exorbitant pricing of essential supplies”, according to the letter sent to states.

All states have been asked to keep groceries and pharmacies out of all Covid-related restrictions, including section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits gathering of five or more persons.

Major states, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, which have witnessed a spike in Covid cases have imposed various kinds of curbs on movement. These include lockdowns, imposition of Section 144 and and curfews.

Maharashtra continued to record a spurt in daily novel coronavirus cases as the state added more than 68,000 new Covid-infected patients in the last 24 hours for the first time ever since the pandemic began, as per health bulletin on Sunday.

Delhi has announced a curfew from 10pm Monday till April 26. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on the Covid-19-related situation on Monday. The meeting came on a day when India recorded a surge of 273,810 new cases and 1,619 fatalities.