The decision making has been fully decentralised for smooth running of business and movement of essential commodities in Telangana, according to Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce.

“We have decentralised the entire operations. Respective district collectors and police officials were authorised to make necessary assessment and give permissions for manufacturing and movement of goods and people,” he said.

Interacting over a Webinar on “Exim Trade during the lockdown of pandemic Covid-19” for the importer and exporter community in Telangana, he said, “Absence of masks and personal protection equipment is becoming a real challenge as most of it comes from China, posing a major bottleneck in the fight against coronavirus.”

“Though some domestic players are manufacturing these items, we mostly depend on China for these products. Unless cargo ships and cargo flights are permitted into India from China, we have to face these challenges for some more time,” he said.

“We are working on this at central and state levels. So far only one flight is coming from China per week to Delhi which is grossly inadequate to meet our demands. We are putting efforts to increase the frequency of those flights and to destinations such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai,” Ranjan added.

“Pharma is a big exporter from our region. But we need to understand that we have domestic market for pharma to serve. At this point, I am not sure when we can allow usual kind of export business of pharma given the circumstances, unless there is a global emergency for our products,” he said.

JS Chandrasekhar, Principal Commissioner Customs, said “the customs is working 24 X 7 to support during this crisis. The essential commodities are the priority but even other allied commodities required to support essential commodities are being cleared.”

D Satyanarayana, Chief General Manager of Concor, said, “They are facing difficulties in moving the containers to the factories in the absence of drivers and trucks. Concor is even moving empty containers to support the trade in this crisis.”

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