Home delivery of food has slowly picked up in Assam, to prevent people from violating lockdown orders in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Home delivery of grocery has been also started in Golaghat, Guwahati, Nagaon, Tezpur, Mangaldoi, Digboi, Margherita, Mirza and Nazira, among other places.

The Golaghat Municipal Board has started home delivery of vegetables and fruits in its 13 wards through mobile vans. The service operates from 7am till 11am daily.

Manash Chaliha, owner of a pharmacy in the Upper Assam town, has started home delivery of medicines.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who was on an inspection trip to Golaghat on Saturday, stressed on government efforts to provide doorstep delivery of all essential services and goods to the people confined to their homes during the 21-day nationwide lockdown. “I have instructed the chief secretary to monitor the situation in every district on a daily basis and to make sure that there is no dearth of food items,” he said.

In neighbouring Jorhat district, deputy commissioner R.A. Korati is pushing for home delivery of essential goods by engaging delivery partners of e-commerce companies.

The stress on home delivery assumed importance following reports of violation of lockdown across the state on Friday as people came out to purchase rations despite government claim there will be no shortage of essentials.

Dhubri Municipal Board also initiated steps to facilitate home delivery of grocery and vegetables in its 16 wards in the lower Assam town from Saturday.

Following the announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday that the nation will locked down for 21 days from midnight, people who wanted to stock up essential items, thronged local markets across lower Assam’s Dhubri district and other areas. As a large number of people gathered in the markets, social distancing guidelines went for a toss.

Rahul Zavir, executive officer of Dhubri Municipal Board, said, “It was observed that some mischief-mongers, who just wanted to come out on the roads, tried to show that they had come to buy provisions though they really had nothing to purchase.”

Taking all these aspects into account, the administration, after observing the areas that emerged as hotspots for crowding in the last two days, held meetings with traders and shopkeepers of Dhubri town and asked them to initiate steps to facilitate home delivery of provisions and vegetables at people’s doorsteps, Zavir said.

On Saturday, nine of the 67 grocery shops marked to provide essential commodities under the municipal board areas began home delivery of provisions while the authority is delivering vegetables directly at the doorsteps of the residents.

The administration also allowed 17 grocery shops under Gauripur Municipal Board areas to provide essential commodities to consumers, with a provision to deliver them at the doorsteps of the residents.

Residents of Dhubri and Gauripur towns thanked the district administration and municipal authorities for taking the initiative to ensure doorstep delivery of provisions amid the lockdown.

At Daboka in Hojai district, police aided vendors with vehicles to deliver vegetables at the doorsteps of customers in the town and in the remote areas on Saturday.

Additional reporting by Mukesh Kumar Singh in Dhubri and Nikhil Kumar Mundra in Hojai