Coronavirus / From today, curfew passes must to enter Delhi

New Delhi: People entering Delhi from any of its borders will require special “curfew passes”, the Delhi Police announced on Monday, intensifying unprecedented restrictions meant to tackle the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, with measures that have now raised questions on how operations of some key essential services will function under these curbs.

The move was among several issued by police commissioner SN Shrivastava, who said the enforcement of prohibitory order under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not “up to the mark” on the first day of the nine-day isolation of the city.

Section 144 prohibits the assembly of four or more persons at one location. At many places across the city, people not employed in essential services, which are exempted from the lockdown, tried to cross the borders or move around the city on Monday. At the borders, people were stopped and asked to return home.

Monday night’s order issued by Shrivastava said that all border posts would be sealed for everyone except people heading in for essential goods and services. The curfew pass approval system announced by the police, however, gives businesses engaged in such essential services less than a day’s window to apply for passes before the new entry system comes into force.

Hundreds of thousands of people cross into Delhi from the several bustling satellite towns -- Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad -- for jobs. These include health care workers, food delivery personnel, bank staffers and journalists who are part of what have been identified as essential services that will continue during the lockdown. Several essential services also have key supply lines across the amorphous National Capital Region (NCR) that could get affected by these rules.

For people in private organisations, their employers will now have to seek “curfew passes” from the office of the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in the area where their office is located -- a process that could turn out to be cumbersome and impractical.

According to the order, those in Gurugram and Manesar must seek their passes from the office of the South-West DCP, those in Faridabad from the office of South-East DCP and Ghaziabad applicants from the Shahdara DCP ‘s office. Those in Noida will need to apply to the East DCP office, Sonepat to the Outer-North DCP and Bahadurgarh and Jhajjar to the Outer Delhi DCP’s office.

The passes are only for inter-border movement, and will not be required for those living and commuting within Delhi.

According to police’s latest order, government officials engaged in providing essential services would be let in on the basis of their identity cards. “For employees of private companies to whom the essential service is outsourced by the government, the movement shall be permitted on the basis of identity card and authorization issued by concerned government organisation,” the order said.

The police chief also wrote that there should be strict checking within the city and at the borders to ensure that no gathering or movement takes place in violation of the prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC.

Randhawa, the Delhi Police spokesperson, said that individuals need not visit the DCP’s office for the curfew passes. “The organisation can send a list of names and we will issue the passes after assessing the genuine requirements,” said Randhawa.

That’s because of concerns that many applicants could gather at these DCP offices and lead to overcrowding, defeating the purpose of social distancing.