The following is the letter sent by ASIRT to the Maharashtra govt (To the CM):
Respected Sir, This is with reference to the Lockdown announced on Sunday, 4th April 2021 and our letter dated 5th April 2021 requesting your esteemed office to include “IT Goods and Services” in Essential Services List. On outset, we take this opportunity to thank you for the prompt action taken by yourself on our request to include “IT Services” in Essential Services List. We sincerely appreciate your understanding and consideration in this matter. This has helped the association members, other IT service providers and the Essential Service providers in the fight against Covid-19. Government’s decision to impose strictest measures to curb the Covid-19 pandemic’s second wave is bearing the results and the numbers have gone down considerably. Of course, we understand that the fight is not yet over and will take considerable efforts from everyone involved. We at ASIRT are fully committed to this and extend our full support to you in this endeavor.
I take this opportunity to bring to your notice an important issue which needs your immediate attention and to be addressed on urgent basis. Recently, since last 2-3 days, we have observed that On Line Stores (OLS) / e-Commerce Platform like Amazon has started delivering IT Goods to Non-Essential customers including individual customers. We hereby bring to your notice that:
- This is completely against the Notification and Guidelines issued by Government of Maharashtra.
- Our fight against Covid-19 is compromised as more people will go out to deliver and more people will be exposed to infection of Covid-19.
- Our members and all IT suppliers across the state of Maharashtra are impacted very badly.
We as law-abiding citizens and businesses, we are refraining from selling or servicing non-essential customers. But if OLS platforms start selling to non-essential customers, it hurts their interest. And it will create a situation where even these IT vendors will be forced to sell to non-essential customers, which in turn again will defeat the purpose of lockdown.
Hence, we hereby request as below: 1. Stop On Line Stores / e-Commerce Platforms (like Amazon etc.) from selling IT Goods to Non-Essential Customers. On behalf of ASIRT, our members and all the IT suppliers, we again thank you and we are hoping that yourself will take appropriate and immediate action in the above matter. I am attaching our previous letter dated 5th April 2021 for your reference. We are all law-abiding citizens and have been following all the norms put down by government from time-to-time and will continue to follow the same. We are with the government in the fight against Covid-19 and extend our full support in this endeavor.
–Tushar Parekh, Chairman, ASIRT
