BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha Government imposing total lockdown across the State restricting vehicular movement, Director General of Police (DGP) Abhay on Tuesday said they are developing a web-based system to issues passes for staff of exempted service categories.
However, to ensure that health service remains unaffected during this period, he instructed the district Superintendents of Police and Deputy Police Commssioners of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to allow movement of medical staff in their vehicles without passes till March 27.
“Due to lack of capacity and other constraints it was not possible to make the pass distribution system robust. However, we are working to develop a web-based system of passes for all exempted categories,” Abhay said and added that as it will take time to develop and stabilise the system, doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel will be allowed to move just by showing valid identity card issued by the Government or private hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Commissionerate Police also announced that it suspended manual issue of vehicle passes till an IT platform is developed to automate the process.
Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi said the IT platform will be introduced by Wednesday. He said the process of issuing passes to emergency workers was cancelled as people in large numbers gathered at one place to collect it for which maintaining social distance was not possible.
He advised people not to panic and congregate near police stations to collect passes. “Citizens, who need to travel because of medical emergencies are, being allowed after producing medical papers,” Sarangi said.