Many Calcuttans who ordered frozen fish online from a government app have not got the items delivered even well beyond the expected date.

Some of them, who have already paid online, are yet to hear a word on refund.

Officials of the State Fisheries Development Corporation (SFDC), which maintains the app, attributed the problem to a nearly 12-time increase in the number of daily orders in the last week of March and the reduction in manpower because of the lockdown.

“We are equipped to handle 50 to 60 orders a day. But in the last week of March, we got over 600 orders a day,” said Subrata Mukherjee, the managing director of SFDC.

The number of orders kept surging but the manpower headed south. “We are dependant on unorganised sector workers — not directly on the government payroll — for netting, dressing, storing, packing and delivering fish. Many workers come from North and South 24-Parganas. Many of them have not been coming because of the lockdown,” said Mukherjee.

As of Thursday afternoon, there were close to 4,000 pending orders, said sources in the corporation.

“For now, we are focussing on delivering pending orders for which payments have been made. The cash-on-delivery orders cannot be delivered now,” said an official.

Mukherjee said anyone who cancelled the order would get a refund and those who did not would get their orders soon.

A message on the SFDC website on Thursday read: “Due to overwhelming number of orders for home delivery of fish during the period of lockdown, no further orders are being accepted for the time being. New orders will be allowed as soon as old pending orders are delivered.” A similar message will be uploaded on the app, too, the official said.

A 53-year-old woman from Heysham Road in Bhowanipore, who works with a global consultancy firm, had ordered two kilos of dressed katla through the app on March 28. Her bill came to Rs 761, which she paid via credit card at the time of placing the order.

“I normally buy fish from a private online platform that had shut before the lockdown. I was relieved after placing the order from a government platform,” she said.

The expected date of delivery was March 29. The woman is yet to get the items. In between, she has made multiple calls to a customer care number printed on the invoice and also sent a mail to an address mentioned on the SFDC website. But to avail. “No one picks up the phone,” she said.

A woman who lives on Ritchie Road underwent a similar experience. The chartered accountant with a power utility had ordered one kilo of katla and 500gm of parshe and bekti each on March 28.

She had paid Rs 1,694 through credit card while ordering but did not get the fish till Thursday.

“I understand there is a crisis. I don’t need a refund and won’t mind if the fish is delivered after the crisis is over. But all I need is proper communication from their end,” said the woman, who had sent a message on the SFDC enquiry portal but is yet to get a reply.

With too few private players in operation and physical markets inaccessible for many, the SFDC app has been getting a lot of online traction since the lockdown started on March 24.

Till a couple of days ago, there were around 1,000 pending orders. “The number came down to 300 on Thursday. We will deliver these orders as soon as possible,” said an official.

Mukherjee said the SFDC had tied up with an online food aggregator to deliver fish. “The delivery through the app should start from Friday. That will reduce the burden on us,” he told Metro.

The SFDC owns 900 hectares of water body for fish farming across the East Calcutta Wetlands, Salt Lake, Rajarhat, Henry’s Island, Frasergunj, Digha and other parts of the state. It produces over 15,000 metric tonnes of fish a year.