The Centre has allowed shops in residential areas , except those in the malls to reopen(Representational)
Manoj Parida, advisor to Chandigarh administrator, logged in to Twitter today in the hope to find suggestions for an exit strategy for a smooth end to the lockdown period, imposed to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. But, what he found sitting on his inbox was a slew of direct messages (DMs) requesting for cake delivery amid the lockdown.
Mr Parida is now planning to block his DMs as he was "getting too many requests to send birthday cakes."
"I plan to block my direct message facility since I am getting too many requests to send birthday cakes to certain people," he tweeted.
Punjab Special Chief Secretary KBS. Sidhu, who is also the in-charge to monitor coronavirus cases, replied to him in a tweet, saying, "You can have the cake and eat it too."
In an earlier tweet, the advisor had asked for "ideas regarding opening up the city" after May 3, the day the nationwide lockdown is scheduled to be lifted.
Several reports have surfaced about strange calls on lockdown helpline numbers, with demands ranging from biryani, rasgullas, samosas to even pan and gutka.
The Centre has recently allowed all shops in residential areas, except those in the malls, to reopen with certain conditions. The relaxations are not applicable to hotspots and containment zones.
Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Modi met with chief ministers of various states through video-conferencing and sought their views on tackling COVID-19.
Most of the chief ministers demanded the lockdown to be extended and urged the prime minister to take a call on the exit strategy.