Since May 1, over 1.8 lakh of 2 lakh who applied have got movement pass

Gurgaon: Around two lakh residents of Gurgaon have applied for movement passes since the announcement of lockdown on May 1. Of them, some 1.82 lakh people were issued passes while 15,120 applications had been rejected. The major chunk of movement passes was issued to industry workers and people working in the IT sector and essential services, officials said.
On May 3, the Haryana government imposed a complete lockdown in the state for seven days to help break the chain of Covid-19 infection, following a weekend curfew in nine worst-affected districts, including Gurgaon.
Later the government extended the lockdown in the state by a week till May 17. However, there are no restrictions on the movement of police and fire personnel, and employees of the municipal, health and electricity departments. All industrial units were asked to apply for requisite passes for their staff.
Since the announcement of lockdown, the Saral Haryana portal (https://saralharayana.gov.in) has been flooded with applications from Gurugramers. Till now, 1.82 lakh people have received the movement passes, of which 61,000 were issued to industry workers and 33,700 were issued to IT sector workers. As many as 11,000 passes were issued for medical emergencies. Besides, 126 people were issued passes for non-Covid treatment, officials said.
“The movement passes are issued within 2-3 hours of the receipt of an application if the reasons cited are satisfactory and fall within the norms of the government,” said a senior government official. “Multiple passes were issued to people who needed non-Covid medical treatment like dialysis, chemotherapy and other ongoing treatment which cannot be delayed. Efforts are being made to cause minimum inconvenience to residents and make the process as smooth as possible.”
Along with the genuine and serious applications, the portal also receives several applications with trivial reasons to get movement passes.
“Some residents have sought movement passes to visit hill stations in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, citing fewer traffic on the roads, while a few wanted to go for a long drive,” the official said.
On an average, the administration receives around 40-50 such “frivolous” applications and all get rejected. “People need to be a little sensitive. Lockdown has been imposed to contain the spread of Covid. Going through such applications is only a waste of our time and effort,” he added.