Kathmandu District Administration Office flooded with applications for vehicle passes
People from the media, banks, government agencies, and essential service providing agencies are seeking passes to operate vehicles during lockdown, officials say. (File photo) The DAO issues emergency vehicle passes to the people working in media, banks, government agencies, and essential service providers. Kabin Adhikari/TKP
Hundreds of people have been visiting the Kathmandu District Administration Office to apply for emergency vehicle passes as the government has enforced a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Ever since the week-long lockdown orders came into effect on Tuesday, the administration office has been busy distributing vehicle passes to various organisations and professionals offering essential services. “We have already issued over 2,500 passes,” Man Bahadur Budha, an official at the administration office, told the Post. Four day into the lockdown, the size of the crowd at the DAO remained unchanged on Friday.
“We started distributing passes from Monday evening itself, still the number of applications has not gone down,” said Budha.The DAO issues emergency vehicle passes to the people working in media, banks, government agencies, and essential service providers. But Budha said even those people who do not qualify for the passes were applying.“Our staff are strictly vetting the applications before issuing the passes after people from the non-essential sector were coming to the office during the lockdown period to apply for passes,” Budha told the Post.
On the first day of the lockdown, the DAO was flooded with people seeking vehicle passes despite the government’s advice to avoid large gatherings and maintain social distancing to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus or SARS-Cov-2, which causes Covid-19. “Controlling the crowd on the first day of the lockdown was very difficult,” said Budha. “We had to call the police to manage the mass by creating lines and enforcing a safe distance rule as a precaution against coronavirus spread.”
Shuvam Dhungana was a crime and social affairs reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Before joining the Post, Dhungana worked for The Himalayan Times and Republica.
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