Delhi govt issues over 26,000 e-passes to essential service providers, rejects 46k pleas

The Delhi government has issued over 26,000 e-passes to the essential service providers since the national capital has gone under lockdown, it said in a statement on Saturday. Also, the government has rejected 46,299 applications for e-passes and 47,914 are pending approval. Besides, 1,364 e-passes and 561 normal passes were issued for vehicles carrying essentias.

The maximum number of passes have been issued in New Delhi district, followed by South Delhi. According to the statement, many states have approached the Delhi government about how the system of e-passes have been implemented in the national capital. Earlier this week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that e-passes would be issued to vegetable vendors, grocers, milk sellers and other essential service providers to ensure smooth supply of daily use items in Delhi during the 21-day lockdown. "Till date, the Delhi government has issued 26,447 e-passes to the people providing essential services and 1364 e-passes to the vehicles carrying essential commodities," it stated. In addition, the government has received 10,744 duplicate applications, whose e-passes have already been issued. Every pass has a unique QR code and the police can check the authenticity of the pass through that, the statement stated.

The colour codes of e-passes are based on the nature of service for easy identification. The Delhi government has started a helpline number – 1031 --where people can call for queries related to passes. "The Delhi government has also requested the police that till the time the government is working to provide these passes, the police should allow people who are carrying essential commodities," it stated.

In view of the heavy rush at the helpline, an online platform ---- epass.jantasamvad.org/epass/init -- have been created to generate colour-coded e-passes, which would be sent on the WhatsApp number of the applicant after verification, it said..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)