Feed the people; starve the virus: A citizen suggests measures to the authorities

Mangaluru: In these corona challenged times, we must put our grey matter together to come up with innovative solutions to our logistical, medical and social problems.

While our representatives and Government authorities are already doing that on our behalf, it is our bounden duty to provide them with constructive suggestions and food for thought that they can possibly incorporate into the solutions that they are constantly looking for as the ground situation changes from day to day.

One such enterprising and innovative citizen has made the following suggestions to “Starve the virus and Feed the people” He looks to support the ongoing lockdown, with innovative, grocery collection and distribution services in a methodical structured way.  

Here is the full text of his mail addressed to the DC, Mangalore but sent to Newskarnataka.com for onward transmission. He makes valid points that can be incorporated in the developing strategy to deal with logistical issues arising from the lockdown.

“Dear Madam,

There is no way India will survive a full-fledged war with corona. Considering this, the Govt of India has taken the right step by imposing a total lockdown.

However, we need to offer the people the hope of surviving this situation & not make them choose whether they want to die of the Coronavirus or by starvation. However, keeping shops open, will cause crowding & will enhance the risk of exposure n spread of the virus. Therefore, we need to have a two-pronged strategy, i.e feed the people & starve the virus.

I propose the following process to protect the people of Mlore from Corona while also protecting them from starvation;

1. From the corporation records, identify grocery / Kirana / Retail / Dept stores. Retrieve address details / location / mobile contact no to prepare database. 
2. Contact these stores; SMS, WhatsApp or call, inviting their co-operation to supply goods. List out items to be supplied & fix prices to be charged. Those unable to co-operate can be marked accordingly in the database. 
3. Extract list of all residential door nos within Mlore city along with address details/location. 
4. Create a database, mapping stores against residential door numbers in Mangalore city.  
5. Send a communication to all mobile holders; i.e citizens (currently within Mangalore cell site area), to send a list of their requirements along with door number to a central number (Voda / Jio / Airtel / BSNL). You may also mention the items available for supply & the price. In the communication, state that each door number will not be serviced more than once every five days & order contravening this frequency will be rejected without intimation. Furthermore, an order shall not be delivered if they do not wear mask/face covering when collecting it. 
6. The citizens will SMS their requirement to a central number (no charge) of their telecom operator. The operator will extract data (hourly basis) & mail it to central contact (database) at the DC office. Format for data sharing to be uniform. 
7. At the DC office, the data will be filtered, mapped to the grocery / Kirana / Retail / Dept stores closest to the sender & shared with them via WhatsApp as PDF file.
8. Once the order has been packed & billed, the grocery / Kirana / Dept stores will send an SMS (spl no – so no charge) to their telecom operator along with the mobile number of the customer & the inv number, inv date & amount. The telecom operator will immediately / automatically trigger an SMS to the mobile number informing them that their order is ready, along with the name / location of the store from where the order is to be collected & the bill amount, within 24 hours of receiving the SMS. 
9. A healthy person from the household will go to the store, wearing mask/face covering & EXACT amount of the bill. He/ she will pay the amount, collect the item & return. There shall be no crowding at the stores or exchange of notes. 
10. For safety purposes, all money collected at these stores over the next few days can also be fumigated/sanitized before submission at the bank. 
11. The police shall be instructed that persons displaying such SMS (within the last 24 hours) or carrying provisions are not to be harmed.

OPTIONAL – The above process cannot apply to the unorganized sector (vegetable/fruit) vendors. However, there is ONE option so far as vegetable/fruit vendors are concerned. For the duration of the lockdown, instead of selling from a central (market) location, they are allowed to set mini stalls from 7 am to 11 am along the main roads, maintaining at least 15 ft distance between stalls (each stall 5 ft). Markings for these stalls can be done along the main roads & thereafter fruit/vegetable vendors informed.

Meat & Fish vendors, I’m sorry I have no solution for them; or for non-vegetarians, as of now.

Ma’am, I don’t think I am in any way qualified to provide solutions to national issues. However, looking at all the videos where people are either congregating to purchase rations (thereby increasing the risk of spreading the disease) or the more fearful ones are starving, I thought I should share with you the possibility of addressing this issue. I hope we actually starve Corona Virus of victims & not have people become victims of starvation.

Regards
Shobhan S.”