SHILLONG: It has been a challenging task for the government to bring essential supplies into the state during the nationwide lockdown. Essential commodities are reaching Meghalaya all thanks to hundreds of truckers who are efficiently doing the job despite facing problems.
Food, for instance, is a major problem as eateries along highways are closed. Truckers driving hundreds of kilometers have no choice but to carry on with their task in empty stomach.
Keeping this in mind, the East Jaintia Hills district administration has allowed two eateries in Ladrymbai and Sonapur to cater to them.
The two restaurants where these truckers can avail food are Friends Restaurant in Ladrymbai and Halari dhaba in Sonapur. The eateries have been running for the last three weeks.
However, East Jaintia Hills SP Vivekanand Singh said truckers have to follow protocols while getting their food from the eateries.
They cannot sit and eat their food but have to pack their orders. Social distancing should also be followed at these eateries.
“Apart from truckers, others can also pack their food from these restaurants,” said Singh.
Sajjad Ali, a trucker carrying goods from Guwahati to Tripura, admitted that life has become tough for them during the lockdown as they are covering thousands of kilometers without food. He expressed happiness with the arrangement.
But Ri Bhoi, which is another bordering district, has not made such an arrangement and the district police have already written to the deputy commissioner to start a similar initiative.
It may be mentioned that there are approximately 800 vehicles entering Meghalaya from Ratacherra every day and screening of vehicles are being done.
“We have a medical team there 24×7 and we do screening there. Curfew passes are checked and if all papers are fine, we allow them to go after entering their data,” Singh said.
WhatsApp help
Meanwhile, to ensure proper coordination, the state police are also using WhatsApp.
The police of Ri Bhoi, East Khasi Hills, West and East Jaintia Hills have created a vehicle screening group in which pictures of all the vehicles along with their occupants and other details are shared while these vehicles enter Meghalaya either from Byrnihat or Ratacherra.
With this WhatsApp group, police in either Byrnihat or Ratacherra can match the number of occupants in these vehicles at the entry and the exit points.
More than 2,000 pictures are uploaded in the group and all the SPs of four districts, officers from police headquarters and police staff are present in the group.
It is learnt that the screening camp in East Jaintia Hills has a dedicated phone for using the feature and the staff continuously monitor the entry and exit of vehicles through this WhatsApp group.
