About 30,000 orders wereplaced online for doorstep delivery of essential items, which has been made mandatory in Ahmedabad, on a single day on Friday, a Gujarat government official said on Saturday and added that it was the largest such distribution so far in the country.These orders have generated cashless transactions worth Rs 8.5 crore, he said.In a bid to check the spread of coronavirus in Ahmedabnad, which has so far reported over 7,000 cases and 473 deaths, the cash-on-delivery option was banned and digital payment mode became compulsory for online delivery of grocery and food items from May 15."Around 30,000 online orders were placed for essential supplies in Ahmedabad in a single day on Friday, and Rs 8.5 crore was paid for the same through cashless mode," said Ashwani Kumar, secretary to chief minister Vijay Rupani.It is for the first time that online delivery at such a largescale happened in India on cashless payment, he said.In a video message, Kumar also said that 657 people who reached Gujarat from the Philippines, USA, Kuwait, and UK on special flights will have tochoose from among districts except Ahmedabad, Surat, and their home districts, for getting admitted in institutional quarantine facilities."The state government has once again decided to provide free food basket to 68.8 lakhfamilies holding food security and BPL cards between May 17 and 27," he said.Kumar also said the government will provide the subsidy worth Rs 25 per cattle to the registered cow sheds and 'panjrapoles' (cattle shelters) in May, which works out in numbers at 4 lakh cattle and an outlay of Rs 30-35 crore.
