E-pass must, but who’s checking?

E-pass must, but who’s checking?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:18.04.2021

Officials quickly put in restrictions to curb the rapid spread of Covid-19, but on the ground level, rules are not properly enforced.

Though passengers arriving from other states are asked to quarantine, there is no mechanism to ensure that they stay indoors. No followup calls are made.

While government staff carry out temperature checks at the airport and at the major railway stations, they don’t check for e-passes. “No one asked for the e-pass. I did not get any calls from local authorities about quarantine. There is no point in making people go through the exercise of applying for an e-pass if it is not going to be checked,” said Lakshmi Subramanian, who arrived from Mumbai on Friday. An airline official said there is no instruction to check the e-pass of arriving passengers.

M K Ajit Kumar, who arrived from Calicut, said there was no temperature nor e-pass check at the railway station.

A railway official said e- pass check is done by the state government. “We check the temperature of all passengers who enter the stations. The government has posted staff to check the temperature of passengers at exit gates,” he added. However, the temperature check at exit gates is erratic.

Though the number of air travellers has fallen, the airport still handles more than 12,000 arrivals daily, while Chennai Central and Egmore see around 40,000 people a day.

MISCOMMUNICATION? All arrivals are asked to quarantine for up to 14 days, but there is no mechanism to ensure they do