July 23, 2020
Yogi Adityanath, CM, Uttar Pradesh was approached by FSNM (Federation of Sweets & Namkeen Manufacturers) and all the sweet- sellers and manufacturers of Uttar Pradesh together with a request in a memorandum to allow the mithai shops to be kept open during the lockdown as major festivals like Raksha Bandhan is just around the corner. The festival stands to be celebrated on Monday, August 3, 2020, and is considered the beginning of the festivals a season before other national festivals and the wedding season starts.
The mithai and namkeen industry has been serving the nation since centuries and mithai is served on every festival and occasion and always considered auspicious. Mithai is mostly made by milk and this milk is purchased directly from farmers, but due to the low sales during lockdown, the farmers are facing financial problems.
According to the guidelines applied in Uttar Pradesh, the lockdown has been announced over the weekend, due to which the sweet shops are facing the following problems:
Firstly, festivals are very important for the survival of the sweets industry.
Secondly, people buy sweets/mithai couple of days before the festival arrives. And if there is a lockdown a day or two before, it will become difficult to manage the crowd and social distancing on the day of Raksha Bandhan festival will result in a chaos.
Weighing the situation, all the mithai makers and sellers of Uttar Pradesh and FSNM have requested the UP government that just like other sates of India viz..Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh are counting mithai (made from milk and milk products) under essential commodities category, same way UP should also consider mithai under same category, hence all the mithai shops to be allowed to remain open on the day of festivals.
After the announcement of lockdown imposed by PM Modi, not only Uttar Pradesh, but the entire country is suffering financial losses due to low sales, labor migration, raw material breakdown and many other reasons.