Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday directed all the departments to set up a 24x7 control room with dedicated manpower and open a helpline to address queries and issues of people on emergency and essential services in the state in the wake of coronavirus threat.

While reviewing actions taken by various departments of the state government to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential goods and services, he asked to deploy staff in three shifts who would receive calls from public and contact with respective departments and district administration to address their issues.

Further, to ensure smooth transportation of essential goods, Sonowal directed to entrust a team of officials who will look after the issues throughout the lockdown period.

“He also asked to issue e-passes to goods carriers so that the supply chain is not affected and directed the officials to take steps to ensure uninterrupted supply of animal feed,” said a government statement.

Sonowal held a discussion with representatives of Kamrup Chamber of Commerce and Wholesale Marketing Board for Vegetables at Janata Bhawan and urged the traders’ organisations to take adequate steps to control prices.

The chief minister also agreed to depute an officer of the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department to coordinate with the chamber of commerce to deal with issues regarding availability of stock and settling other issues.

Sonowal asked the deputy commissioner Kamrup (metro) and the commissioner of police, Guwahati, to do the needful for ensuring smooth transportation of vegetables to Guwahati from nearby districts as requested by the Wholesale Marketing Board.

He said the state government had taken all steps to ensure availability of essential commodities and services during the 21-day lockdown period so that people of the state do not have to face any problem. He also urged the traders’ bodies to look at the existing situation from a humanitarian point of view and extend support to the government in easing out people’s woes.

The Kamrup Chamber of Commerce (KCC) on Wednesday donated Rs 11 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for tackling Covid-19. The KCC also appealed to other trade bodies to come forward and contribute to the relief fund “in this difficult period”.