15,000 apply per minute for ‘advance emergency’

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed yesterday urged people to strictly follow the lockdown restrictions and stay home to contain the spread of coronavirus.

"We don't want to see anyone on the roads except for emergency needs from April 14 and we do not want to be rude with anyone. We will curb the wave for the second time like we did last year and for this we have to refrain from unnecessary movement," he said.

The police chief came up with the remark while inaugurating the "movement pass" at a programme at Rajarbagh police lines in Dhaka.

The IGP said last year, several thousand people had left Dhaka and now many are doing the same for the last two days, which is unwise.

During this strict lockdown period, those who need to go out for emergency purposes, the police chief suggested to take a movement pass and return home as early as possible.

The pass can be collected from: movementpass.police.gov.bd.

It will be required to go out during the lockdown in the case of emergency or official work such as getting Covid-19 vaccine, shopping for grocery and medicine, medical services, agricultural works, goods transportation, supply, burial or cremation activities and other activities, according to Police Headquarters.

This pass also can be collected for travelling from one district to another but the journey hour will be of maximum three hours.

For movement inside the city, people have to mention the time of going out of home and how long they need to stay outside. Besides, a person will have to follow the route given by police after applying.

People will be able to collect the pass by entering their name, gender, age, reasons for movement, scheduled date and time for movement, NID card, information about vehicles and image.

Sources said, registration for the pass started around 11am yesterday and on an average 15,000 people are hitting the site every minute, which sometimes rose up to 1.10 lakh.

But analysing the application, police issued pass for 2,000 to 2,500 people every minute, they added.

Till 6:30pm, around six lakh people accessed the site and some 60,000 were able to complete registration and police issued around 30,000 passes against it, according to PHQ database.

Officials involved with the process said the PHQ server was struggling under the pressure for which it was not possible for them to say for which emergency reason people applied the most.

When asked if some will abuse this pass, IGP Benazir said, "Even in the midst of a pandemic, if anyone does that we will take legal action against them."

Replying to a query, he said, "It is not necessary to take a movement pass and we are not forcing anyone. There is no legal issue here."

However, the IGP indicated that a person will face police interrogation if they come out of home without a pass.

Asked what will happen to the marginalised people who do not have internet or smartphones and how they will collect this pass, he said, "About seven crore people in the country use internet. The marginalised population can take help of a neighbour in this regard. Besides, we will get daily feedback from the media."

The media correspondents do not need to carry a movement pass, said officials.

Meanwhile, a special meeting was held at the PHQ, presided over by the IGP, with field police officials to ensure a strict lockdown.

Highway, railway and river police were instructed to ensure smooth movement of emergency services like food, medicine and produces. Industrial police will ensure movement of RMG and other workers.

Tourist police will be responsible for closing all restaurants and hotels. Police officials were also instructed to monitor social media so that no one can make instigating posts regarding Covid-19 or lockdown.

Intelligence was asked to collect information on illegal storing of food and price hike during lockdown, said meeting sources.