At a time when fake passes have become a nuisance for the police in implementing the lockdown effectively, the Uttara Kannada district administration has started issuing e-passes with QR code to prevent misuse.
With 11 COVID-19 cases reported so far, the district has enforced strict lockdown. It has issued e-passes to help people involved in essential services and needy persons. But considering complaints about fake passes being used to move around in restricted areas, the authorities came up with the idea of introducing e-passes with QR code.
“We started the system of issuing e-passes with QR code to ensure that the system is transparent. And we also wanted to make it foolproof so that misuse is prevented,” Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Kananda district K. Harish Kumar told The Hindu.
The Uttara Kannada district unit of NIC (National Informatics Centre) has provided technical support for the initiative. “The software was developed by our colleague Niju Abraham. We have given access to panchayat development officers, the police and tahsildars to accept applications and make entries on the portal for e-passes. If the pass is for movement within the taluk, then the tahsildar will issue it. Anything outside will be decided by the Assistant Commissioner and Additional Deputy Commissioner,” Shreekanth Joshi, head of the district unit of NIC at Karwar, said.
Old passes
Those deployed at check-points can use their smart phones to scan the QR code and enter the captcha to know the genuineness of the pass. And for the passes issued earlier, there is another option. They can visit the website http://117.215.132.25/epass and feed the e-pass ID number to verify whether the pass is genuine or not.