A notice attributed to dairy company Amul is doing the rounds on social media in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. It claims that all chilling stations of the company will be closed for an indefinite time from March 21, 2020. “विषय : कोरोना वायरस की बजह से चिलिंग सेंटर बंद करने के सम्बन्ध (Subject: Regarding the closure of chilling stations due to coronavirus)” – reads the subject line of the notice.
Posted by Mohammed Mohsin Ansari on Thursday, 19 March 2020
Several Facebook users have shared the alleged notice.
Posted by Anil Swami on Wednesday, 18 March 2020
Fake notice
Alt News could neither locate any such information on the Amul website or news reports alerting that the company has decided to suspend business due to coronavirus. The managing director of the cooperative body Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) RS Sodhi took to Twitter and informed that the notice is fake. Amul is managed by GCMMF.
“None of our milk chilling centre or procurement activities are going to close down. Rather we are procuring more,” wrote Sodhi.
It seems somebody spreading this news which is fake and none of our milk chilling centre or procurement activities are going to close down , Rather we are procuring more .@atul1chaturvedi @girirajsinghbjp pic.twitter.com/Glgl8rxfDj
— R S Sodhi (@Rssamul) March 18, 2020
A Financial Express article quotes Sodhi saying that milk supply will not be disrupted due to the spread of COVID-19. “According to Sodhi there has been sizable shift of demand for milk from retail outlets to e-commerce platforms and Amul kiosk because of coronavirus scare,” reads the report.
Speaking with Zee News, he also said that people are indulging in panic buys and hoarding of supplies in cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore due to which the sales of milk power, ghee, butter, etc has shot up. However, “this is not creating any problem related to supply at our end as we keep an inventory of 15-20 days in advance. This has helped us in increasing our production. Thus there is no such shortage,” he continued.
A fake notice is therefore viral in the name of Amul, claiming that the company will shut down its chilling centres from March 21.
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