BENGALURU: While the State Government claims that many migrants and citizens have returned to Karnataka, officials handling the Seva Sindhu portal say that they have no records of the actual number of people who have come back.Tracking those who had not registered on the portal/app has become the biggest challenge for the government, as officials are of the view that most of those who returned are asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus. The government is now looking at ways to rectify the anomaly when the lockdown is lifted again.
Data from the Seva Sindhu portal shared with TNIE shows that 4,61,389 people have come to the state while 9,96,332 have left, as on July 10. But the actual number is much higher, the officials admit.“Registering on the portal does not mean that it is the actual count of people who have come or left. There are many who have come by road bypassing the toll booths, and hence their details are not available.
Also, the government only issued an advisory that people should register on the portal before entering or leaving. It is not mandated and cannot be also. There are instances where a person may have registered on the portal, but has not taken a bus or train for various reasons,” said a senior government official in charge of the portal.
“Uploading data on the portal was needed so that people could be tracked and their data would be available any time. But nothing can be done if a person does not register. It was not just a requirement for labourers, but for everyone coming into state. But those coming by flights or trains had not registered and were permitted entry. So there is no record of the number of people who actually came in and their condition. Now we want to try a systme where all those coming have an ID number. Discussions are still going on to assess the feasibility of the proposal,” the officer explained.
Labour Department Commissioner Akram Pasha too seemed to be in agreement when he said that since most labourers do not have smart phones, they would not have registered but would have still boarded trains. So there is no actual count or data of how many have left and how many have returned.