There have been instances of delivery executives allegedly being stopped and questioned by the police, in some cases, even beaten up despite delivery being classified as an essential service.
The country is under lockdown in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus, with only essential services being allowed to operate by authorities. However, governments and authorities aren’t in congruence over what is considered to be an “essential” service, leading to multiple online grocery providers temporarily halting deliveries, or leading to delay in deliveries. This comes as all providers are witnessing a surge in orders, and it even led to Big Basket’s app and website to crash.
There have been instances of delivery executives allegedly being stopped and questioned by the police, in some cases, even beaten up. However, delivery has been classified as an essential service.
This is what online grocery platforms such as Bigbasket and Grofers said too, as that they continued to operate based on the understanding that they too are classified as an essential service. However, Bigbasket was forced to stop deliveries temporarily due to these restrictions being imposed by authorities.
Many Bigbasket users across the country had a message at the top of their application that said, “Dear Customer, we are not operational due to restrictions imposed by local authorities on the movement of goods in spite of clear guidelines provided by central authorities to enable essential services. We are working with the authorities to be back soon.”
“…in light of recent development with multiple statements coming in, we are awaiting clarifications from the authorities basis which we will be able to determine how soon we can get back to serving you,” the company said in a tweet.
According to Saurabh Kumar, co-founder of Grofers, the online delivery startup has been having trouble delivering even essentials to customers as its warehouses are being asked to close down, and trucks and delivery partners are being stopped by the police.
“Our delivery executives are selflessly putting their safety at risk to ensure people stay indoors and get all their essentials at home. And then they get stopped and harassed by police and local goons. Who are we really clapping for at 5pm today?” he tweeted on Sunday, when the country observed Janata Curfew.
On Monday too, he took to social media to say that police and local authorities continue to shut warehouses.
“All the proactive initiatives of the government and central authorities are going to waste because of overzealous enforcement agencies. Grofers warehouses cater to 5000 to 10,000 orders daily so for every facility that gets shut we risk that many households venturing out for grocery buying. Hoping sense prevails here. We apologise to our customers again. We are trying our best to get all our facilities up,” he tweeted.
