Coronavirus lockdown | Swiggy and Zomato begin liquor home delivery in Jharkhand

Jharkhand government has roped in food delivery companies Swiggy and Zomato for home delivery of liquor in the state's big cities as a means for people to avoid the huge crowd turnouts at the liquor shops. Vinay Kumar Chaubey, Excise and Prohibition Secretary in a statement said people will be provided with an additional e-token facility, which will allow them to purchase liquor on the https://jhexcisetoken.nic.in website in 15 other small district headquarters and will instead be given preference over those at the retail shops queues.

As part of the relaxations in the fourth phase of the lockdown, the Jharkhand government on Monday had permitted retail liquor shops to open along with other notable establishments selling hardware items, construction-related materials, books, stationery and retail outlets of telecom companies falling outside the containment zones. He also went on to say that more food delivery companies will be brought in to offer more options to the people in order to maintain social distancing during the ongoing lockdown period. 

Chaubey in his statement said, "We have adopted hybrid system for making liquor available in some of the big cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Deoghar​​​​​​​, Dhanbad, Ramgarh, Giridih and Palamu by opening the retail liquor shops where people can go and purchase liquor taking care of the social distancing. Secondly, people can get home delivery of liquor at their doorsteps through the two food aggregators – Zomato and Swiggy by downloading the app on their mobile phones,".