Retailers have urged that even non-food retailers should be allowed to make safe and contactless home deliveries in Maharashtra as the State implements stringent curbs to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Retailers Association of India (RAI) on Friday said it has appealed to the State government to allow non-food retailers to home deliver to ensure that people have fewer reasons to step outside, ensure easy access to non-essential supplies.

Household items

In a statement, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI), says, “Citizens also need non-food items such as clothing, hardware, electrical, household kitchen items among others on a daily basis. To enable fulfilling these needs without hardships, all retailers should be allowed to take orders over phone and other electronic means for home deliveries. The store premises can be open for fulfilling home delivery orders and be closed for walk-in customers. This ensures social distancing and convenience to customers.”

Removing roadblocks at the local level will not only help curb the spread of Covid but will also help save millions of livelihoods and help revive the economy, he added.

‘Need coordinated plan’

Retailers and traders have also called for a uniform plan to be adopted across the country to curb the spread of Covid cases.

In a communication to the Prime Minister, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said that although several States have taken various steps to combat Covid but these steps have been inconclusive since they have a piecemeal approach.

“A well defined and unified plan needs to be implemented to fight with the covid pandemic and it will better if the said plan is built on a PPP model,” said CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal

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