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10,000 applications for curfew passes in two days, 550 issued

ByKartik Kumar and Rohit David, Gurugram
Mar 28, 2020 10:48 PM IST

Three days after the district administration announced that emergency curfew passes would be given in exceptional circumstances for movement during the 21-day nationwide

Three days after the district administration announced that emergency curfew passes would be given in exceptional circumstances for movement during the 21-day nationwide lockdown to combat Covid-19, officials on Saturday said that they have received over 10,000 applications and are under scrutiny.

According to officials, till now, 1,700 applications have been scrutinised, 1150 have been rejected and 550 passes have been issued.

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The administration’s website created specifically for issuing passes -- www.ggncurfewpass.in – has three categories under which applications can be submitted. They are citizens, government officials or government officers.

In the form, applicants have to fill their contact and identification details, purpose of work and duration for which the pass is needed. Subsequently, the highly under-staffed team for this task examines the application based on the magnitude of the emergency.

“We are just a three-member team that has been working well past midnight, till about 1-2 am, over the last two days. We are each taking about 15-20 minutes per application to approve or reject it after doing a background check. We see whether the applicant has a medical emergency, is a senior citizen without help, is an essential service personnel or is an employee of a company that has to distribute salaries to the employees,” Kulbir Singh Dhaka, chief executive officer (CEO) of zila parishad managing the issuance of passes, said.

In certain cases, individual passes are also being issued to expats, administration officials said giving the example of a few Japanese nationals who were returning to their country in specially-arranged flights from Delhi and needed passes to get to the airport.

Besides issuance of personal passes, the administration’s Wednesday order stated that free movement of personnel providing 13 essential services --- electricians, plumbers, lift technicians, AC mechanics, vehicle mechanics, generator mechanics, TV mechanics, dish TV/cable/CCTV technicians, internet service providers, private security guards or supervisors, CNG pipeline technicians, sanitation workers and domestic help ---- can also be sought by RWAs after they fill an online form.

Each RWA has the maximum limit of availing of 13 such passes.

“Our RWA received five emergency curfew passes on Saturday morning and after nearly a week, few of our staff members ventured outside to procure emergency and essential items for the society. We were in dire need of supplies,” president of Casa Bella RWA, Sector 82, Dharamveer Singh said.

Some RWAs, on the other hand, are waiting for the administration’s reply to their applications.

“We applied two days ago but we haven’t even heard from the administration. No one is even writing back to us,” said Vinod Giri, president, Belvedere Towers.

Besides being heavily under-staffed, Dhakha pointed out that a large number of applications were made on flimsy ground and were delaying pas issuance. He thus requested residents to exercise restraint.

We have received a huge number of applications for curfew passes, most of which have been sent for needless reasons so people can just venture out. People aren’t realising that the lockdown has been enforced to minimise human interaction and harm. Regardless, we are scrutinising every application thoroughly before coming to a decision. However, the unimportant applications are only delaying the work,” said Dhakha.

Zila parishad officials gave an example of a rejected application where a person had sought a curfew pass so that he could travel till Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh as “he was getting bored staying at home.”

Process of clearing a curfew pass application

1. Applicant has to log on to www.ggncurfewspass.in, choose the type of pass needed (government or private) fill the form by listing their contact and identification details, purpose of work, and duration for which the pass is needed and submit it.

2. The form is then added to the list of pending curfew passes applications.

3. The application is personally reviewed by Zila Parishad officials.

4. If accepted or denied an email would be sent to the applicant’s address informing them about the same.

5. The accepted applicant would get a digital pass, which they can then download.

6. If stopped by a police official, you can show them the pass and they will scan its QR code and let you proceed.

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