Over 2,300 ‘curfew’ passes issued for essential service providers

To ensure the smooth delivery of essential services in the national capital, the Delhi Police issued over 2,300 ‘curfew’ passes till Tuesday evening to private service

To ensure the smooth delivery of essential services in the national capital, the Delhi Police issued over 2,300 ‘curfew’ passes till Tuesday evening to private service providers who did not feature in a list of 25 agencies listed by the government after a national lockdown to stave off the coronavirus epidemic was announced.

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The process went on smoothly barring some initial hiccups. By 6pm, 2,319 passes had been issued. Other applicants would receive them by Wednesday morning, said Anil Mittal, additional public relations officer (PRO) of Delhi Police.

These passes have been made mandatory for private agency employees who need to enter Delhi to provide essential services. Those whose names figured in the list of 25 essential service providers can enter the city by simply showing their valid identity proofs to the policemen manning the borders, the police said.

The private firms can collect the passes from the offices of their respective deputy commissioners of police (DCPs). Six DCPs have been identified to issues passes to those agencies who don’t have offices in Delhi.

Many of those who had reached the DCP offices without proper documents or inadequate papers caused confusion but soon it was sorted out by the police staff. While some applicants did not have the request on the company’s letterhead, others were not carrying ID proofs. Besides, a large number of people who did not need the pass for the intended task, further caused problems.

But by late afternoon, most of the applicants were issued passes, some others were told to collect them on Wednesday morning.

At the East DCP office, applicants began gathering since morning as two nodal officers stationed at the main gate addressed their queries.

“I own a warehouse of grocery and sanitary items in Noida, and supply items to various stores in Delhi-NCR. I came to the East DCP office to get the curfew passes for my staffers and myself. But the policemen asked me to give an application on a letterhead. I don’t have any letter pad of my warehouse. They are not accepting application on plain paper,” said Ankur Aggarwal, an applicant.

When asked about the issue, Jasmeet Singh, DCP (East), said, “We have been regularly briefing our staff about the issues which the people are bringing to our notice. All the issues are being addressed properly and resolved.”

At South-east DCP office in Sarita Vihar where vendors from Faridabad, besides those from the district, had gathered to collect their passes, the application process began around 2.30pm because senior police officers were occupied with the development at the Shaheen Bagh protest site where agitators were evicted.

But by evening, the district police had issued 70 passes, said Kumar Gyanesh, additional DCP (South-east), who was the officer in-charge of the process.

The police officials at all these offices took down the phone numbers of all applicants to communicate to them about the status of their passes.

At the office of the DCP (South) -- which was providing passes for Gurugram -- the collection of applications was swifter even as applicants were informed that they would receive their passes either by late Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. But many received their passes by evening itself.

Some people wanted to get the pass as they had to catch their flights from the Delhi airport. “My office colleagues advised me to get a curfew pass or a written permission from the police so that I face no obstruction on my way to the airport,” said Shravan Kumar, who planned to catch a flight to his hometown in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening. The police officials had to convince him that his flight ticket was enough to allow him to reach the airport.