BHUBANESWAR: The State government has relaxed the timing for opening of shops selling agricultural inputs like seed, fertiliser, insecticides and farm implements during lockdown and weekly shutdown.
The office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) on Monday clarified that all the essential commercial establishments such as health, agriculture, horticulture and allied activities will remain fully functional and operate as per the normal time schedule.
“Opening of such types of shops will not be restricted to either 7 am to 1 pm in Sundargarh, Nuapada and Gajapati districts or 7 am to 11 am in rest of the districts,” said the SRC notification.
In reply to the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department letter, the SRC office said action as deemed appropriate may be taken for the benefit of the farmers and farming community as well for successful implementation of all agricultural activities during the monsoon.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary S K Vashishth had drawn the attention of the SRC to the difficulties faced by the farmers due to the limited hours of opening of shops dealing with the farm inputs and implements during the lockdown. This was also highlighted by TNIE in a report published on May 5.
“Although the State government has allowed all shops dealing with seed/fertiliser/insecticides/farm machinery to remain fully functional, in some districts the administration/police are not allowing these shops to open after 11 am as per recent lockdown norm,” Vashishth said.
He requested the State government to issue a fresh notification permitting the dealers, wholesalers and manufactures selling agricultural inputs to open their shops from 7 am to 5 pm to enable the farmers to purchase their requirements following Covid guidelines.