Noida: No restriction on hawkers, online home-delivery services, says admin

The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration on Thursday allowed home-delivery services, including those delivering food, medicines and groceries, and the hawkers selling fruits and vegetables to operate without any pass amid the ongoing lockdown, officials said.

The online services included in the list were Zomato, Flipkart, Amazon, 24Seven, BlueDart, DTDC, Wow Express, Swiggy, Grofers, BigBasket, Milkbasket, Dunzo, Big Bazaar, Snapdeal, Licious, Medlife, PharmEasy, Urban Clap, Ninja Kart, Honasa Consumer and Healthians Diagnostic, they added.

Also Delhivery, Nutrimoo Milk Dairy, More Retail Ltd, Easy Day, Jabong, Myntra, Spencer's, Reliance Fresh, Jubilant Food works (Dominos Pizza), Food Panda, Faasos, Pizza Hut, Uber Eats, Needs Supermarket, 1mg, Dr Lal Path Labs, Max Path and Satva Cart can operate without any pass, the officials said.

District Magistrate (DM) B N Singh, who issued the order, stated that the staff of these firms can use their company identification card, which will be sufficient to carry out door-to-door delivery by them.

"They will have to show their ID cards to the police authorities and also ensure that those will not be misused, otherwise legal action will be taken," Singh warned.

The administration has also directed that there will be no restrictions for hawkers on taking their carts to sell essential items such as fruits, vegetables and ration across the sectors and societies.

"The essential items kept on their cart will be treated as the pass for ensuring door-to-door supply. These hawkers, however, must ensure that no more than two people are present at their carts at any given time in order to maintain social distancing and prevent the coronavirus from spreading," the DM said in the order.

Gautam Buddh Nagar has so far recorded 14 COVID-19 cases, while the number for Uttar Pradesh stood at 37. Across India, 649 cases were reported as of Thursday morning, according to official data.