Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Friday asked food delivery company Zomato to rethink their new ten-minute delivery policy. He said the policy could pose a risk to the lives of their delivery partners who will be forced to ride their vehicles faster in order to meet the deadline.
“Zomato’s plan of delivering food in 10 minutes is like playing with the lives of its employees as well as the lives of other people,” said Mishra. He added that the company will be held responsible if any traffic accidents or violations take place.
“Traffic violations will not be tolerated, whether it is Zomato or anyone else,” Mishra said on Friday. “How can someone travel four kilometres in 10 minutes within the city without driving rashly and dangerously?”
On March 21, Zomato founder, Deepinder Goyal had announced the food aggregator’s decision to start ‘Zomato Instant’, a ten-minute delivery system. The service will have “finishing stations” with 20-30 bestseller items from various restaurants based on demand predictability and hyperlocal preferences.
After receiving severe backlash on Twitter after his announcement, Goyal on March 22, said that the delivery partners will not be penalised for late deliveries, will be sensitised on road safety, and provided with life insurance.
Earlier this month, the Mumbai Police too had issued a circular directing delivery service companies to make their staff aware about traffic rules. The police also asked the companies to ensure that the delivery personnel do not carry more than the stipulated weight on the vehicles.
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