The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a clarification on Thursday that “animal feed and fodder” is an essential item.

The clarification was issued after it was noticed that some States were not allowing inter-State movement of animal feed and fodder.

“It is hereby clarified that exceptions under Clause 6 covers the transportation/inter-State movement of animal feed and fodder, being the essential items. It is requested that above clarification may please be disseminated to the field agencies,” a letter issued by Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, Joint secretary, MHA to Chief Secretaries said.

After the 21-day lockdown was announced on Tuesday, the MHA issued a slew of guidelines to be followed by States for “containment of COVID-19 epidemic” and asked all “enforcing authorities to note that these strict restrictions fundamentally relate to movement of people but not to that of essential goods.”