Puneites stranded outside struggle to get back to city

PUNE: City-based working professional Girish Jain has been stuck in Indore along with his wife and two daughters for about two months. The family is desperately trying to acquire a travel pass to facilitate their travel back home.
“The first time we tried to get the pass was when the lockdown was extended for the first time. We made an application on a Madhya Pradesh government website but it was rejected. Now, we are trying to get a pass once again,” said Jalan.
Similarly, businessman Shailesh Modi has been trying to arrange a pass for his wife to travel to Pune from Mumbai. “I am ready to there, but I am not getting permission,” he said.
Like Jalan and Modi, several people from Pune stranded across the country are struggling to acquire travel passes to get back home.
Some like Wanowrie resident Pascoal D’Souza and his wife did manage to return home after an extended stay away. “Both my parents have medical issues. They were stranded in Goa for over 45 days. They finally got a pass from the Goa authorities and a cab brought them to Pune on May 6,” said Sylvester D’Souza.
Social media is replete with posts by stranded people seeking help. Many people are still unaware of the online system set up by the Maharashtra government. There is also concern about the position taken by various state governments on allowing movement of vehicles across their border. Some states have refused to honour the travel passes issued by states severely hit by pandemic.
Maharashtra has appointed additional chief secretary (revenue) Nitin Kareer as a nodal officer to issuing NOCs and passes to facilitate inter-state travel (see box).
“Since May 1, we have issued 2.48 lakh travel passes to people heading outside Maharashtra,” Kareer stated in a note placed before the state cabinet meeting on May 6. “Passes issued by us are applicable in all states. We have not yet come across any complaint about our travel pass not getting honoured by other state.”
Pune police nodal officer deputy commissioner of police Bachchan Singh stated, “As per central and state government directives, we are allowing movement of stranded persons from Pune to other destinations within and outside Maharashtra with certain precautionary measures.”