Day 6: RWAs say MCG yet to respond to requests for delivery of essentials to societies trying to keep residents indoors

Many residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) across the city said that the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is yet to respond to their requests for delivery of groceries, as promised earlier, to their condominiums.

Last Wednesday, the MCG had issued a public notice stating that amid the 21-day national lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19, RWAs of condominiums, gated colonies and sectors that do not have a grocery shop on their premises can send an email to rwa.covid@mcg.gov.in and subsequently, the civic body will deliver the essential items, such as flour, pulses, etc, to their establishments.

On Saturday, the MCG had also started providing vegetables and fruits under the same service. At the time of issuing the notices, MCG had also attached price lists of the items.

“Although we have a grocery store in the condominium, there is no distributor to fill the stock. Hence, we prepared a list of items needed for residents and accordingly, placed the orders with the MCG on Friday, but there has been no response from them. Unless we are able to venture outside, our supplies will run out completely. We are hoping that the MCG delivers the supply within the next two days, failing which we will have to explore alternatives,” said Vinod Giri, RWA president, Belvedere Towers, DLF 2.

At Mapsko Casa Bella, located in Sector 82, the RWA members said that there are two vegetable shops in their condominium, but there is no outlet to provide groceries. Hence, they placed an order for the same with the MCG on Saturday but are still waiting to hear from them. “We have asked for 2,500 kg of rice, 2,500 kg of flours, 1,000 kg of pulses with the MCG, but haven’t received any acknowledgement regarding the same. I wish they had an automated reply to orders, with the number of a contact person or a mode to track the order. Due to the uncertainty, we aren’t even sure if the order has been placed,” said Dharamveer Singh, the president of Mapsko Casa Bella RWA.

An MCG official privy to the matter said that as the process of distribution is new to the civic body, officials are working on the technicalities of the process.

“The whole process, of distributing groceries, vegetables and fruits, is completely new to us. We have primarily dealt with repairing or starting new civic amenities. Slowly, the setup is being streamlined and we have also taken the assistance of other departments for fulfilling all orders at the earliest. Within a week, we would get familiarised with this and ensure deliveries within 48 hours of orders,” a senior MCG official, privy to the matter, said.

Vinay Yadav, secretary of the Gurugram market committee, said that the market committee was roped into the distribution work on Friday evening.

“The MCG informs us about the supply requirement and accordingly, we gather all the groceries, vegetables and fruits, and distribute it to the societies. On Saturday and Sunday, 14 societies applied online for items. Supplies have been distributed to five while the remaining nine were done on Monday. We have enough supply with us and the demands of the societies are being met,” said Yadav.

According to MCG officials, once an order has been placed, they will load the stock on a bus of the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL), after sanitisation and disinfection. Subsequently, the load would be dropped at a designated site, chosen by the RWAs, within their establishment. They will wait for the entire stock to be sold to residents, to ensure they aren’t being sold at inflated prices, and also create social distancing circles to ensure there is enough distance between residents.

The district administration has constituted 20 teams for the distribution of items, while four teams are on standby, said officials. Each team comprises five officials, including one head constable of the Gurugram Police and retailer vendors. In addition, five executive engineers of the MCG have been assigned to supervise four teams, each.