Coronavirus: Karnataka govt issues passes to regulate movement of people

The Commissioner of Police of Bengaluru, with a mandate from the Government of Karnataka, has issued a memo stating that it will be issuing COVID-passes to regulate the movement of people. The circular said that the pass will be issued for two kinds of purposes – one for people and other for vehicles.

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Passes will be issued for private security guards, petrol, gas, LPG employees, banks, ATMs, insurance company employees, delivery agents of food aggregator services like Swiggy and Zomato, online pharmaceutical companies, ecommerce platforms, print and electronic media people, staff working for ration or grocery stores, dairies, meat, fish shops, and animal fodder, and staff members of medical establishments, hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, nursing homes, labs, and ambulance services.

Passes will also be issued to staff members of telecom and internet services, IT and IT enabled services employees that work for essential services, employees of power generation, transmission, and distribution units, and the staff of capital and debt market services.

Also employees of cold storage and warehousing services, staff members of manufacturing units of essential commodities, individuals engaged in transportation of essential goods, employees of hotels and lodges accommodating tourists stranded due to the coronavirus and earmarked for quarantine facilities.

The memo stated that the pass will be issued from the office of jurisdictional DCP L&O. It said that these will be made available 24X7 once the standardised application forms are submitted.

The memo brings some clarity as delivery executives and people working at healthcare facilities have been facing flak from the police for being out on streets during the government-mandated lockdown to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. It has also made transport of essential services next to impossible.

The memo added that the pass won't be issued to government vehicles with 'G' registration plates, goods vehicles, employees of government departments, and all employees of High Court.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)