Medical stores now doubling up as groceries

P+UNE With a strict weekend lockdown in place residents are finding alternate options to buy groceries. Some big medical shops have started selling grocery items, bakery products, ice-creams and various other such items.

“There is one 24x 7 medical shop on Satara road where we get almost everything which we buy from a normal grocery shop. There are biscuits, chips, packed food items and many other things,” said Ashutosh Phad, a student living near Swargate.

These shops mostly operate round the clock and people rush here not to buy medicines, but these grocery items. Even the civic body or police department won’t take any action against such violators.

Shivaji Desai, joint commissioner, Foods and drugs administration, said, “There are complaints received about such medical stores selling food items, but they have a legal food license for it. If needed and found violating the rules the police department or civic body can take necessary action.”

Folk artistes to raise Covid1-9 awareness from talukas to municipal areas

The state government has decided to create awareness about Covid-19 through local folk artistes. The state government’s cultural department has issued an order to all local bodies, including the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), to run awareness programmes. The state has sanctioned ₹5 crore for this.

The tourism and cultural affairs department under secretary Shailesh Jadhav has issued an order which mentioned folk artistes should be given priority to create awareness from the taluka level to the corporation level. The government has fixed ₹500 per show and one artiste should hold 10 programmes in a seven-day period.

In district level, administration will have to give permission to 300 artistes and each district spend Rs13.50 lakh on the awareness programmes. Artists should have to follow all the rules and regulation as mentioned by state government.