Maharashtra: Societies association hails move to allow newspaper delivery

MUMBAI: The state government on Thursday issued a notification formalising its decision earlier in the week to allow doorstep delivery of newspapers from Sunday, June 7.
The decision has been welcomed by the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MahaSeWa), which has informed office-bearers of the nearly 60,000 co-operative societies in the state about the government's move. "Newspapers act as a link between government and the people. Readers are comfortable with the printed paper. So it is very important that they get authentic news. We welcome the decision and have issued guidelines to over 60,000 societies," said Ramesh Prabhu, chairman of MahaSeWa.
Societies offer sanitizers for newspaper delivery boys
With the Maharashtra government on Thursday formalising with a notification its move to allow doorstep delivery of newspapers, many housing societies said they would scrupulously follow government guidelines in the matter.
“We will screen the newspaper delivery personnel for fever and provide them with sanitizers too. People were keen to have their newspapers back,” said a managing committee member of a society in Chembur.
The notification, which is part of the state’s move to unlock red zones in a phased manner, states that hand sanitizers and masks are a must for newspaper delivery personnel, and they would have to follow social distancing norms too.
Though the state government has put the onus of providing sanitizers on the vendors, several housing societies have said that they are willing to give sanitizers to the delivery personnel. Doorstep delivery of dailies had been halted for some time in some parts of the state due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.
It was chief minister Uddhav Thackeray who gave the final go-ahead for the doorstep delivery of newspapers.