The government, under its initiative of bringing back the stranded people of J&K to their homes in the wake of COVID-19 Lokdown, has evacuated 39825 stranded passengers of the Union Territory through Lakhanpur till date. Besides, 3217 stranded people have reached Udhampur through three special trains from Karnatka, Goa and Dehli. Also, 169 persons would be reaching Srinagar from Dhaka in the 3rd special flight. The Govt. has assured that those still in Bangladesh need not to worry as there will be yet another flight. The first flight with 81 students arrived in Srinagar on May 8 and second flight with 169 students from Bangladesh arrived yesterday in Srinagar. Till date 419 students from Bangladesh have arrived in J&K.Upon their arrival in Srinagar all the students from Bangladesh were screened and their samples were taken to test for COVID-19.As per the official communiqué, of 39825 returnees till May 13, 2020 (morning) coming via Lakhanpur included 10743 from Punjab; 18111 from Himachal Pardesh, 10971 from other states and UTs including Delhi, Gujrat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odhisa, Assam and Madhya Pradesh till May 13 morning.Meanwhile, the fourth train from Goa carrying 697 stranded passengers is expected to reach Udhampur by this evening. Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, who is also the Nodal Officer for management of return of stranded people at Udhampur, District Development Commissioner, Dr. Piyush Singla, are personally monitoring the facilities being extended to the passengers during their de-boarding and movement to their home districts at the Udhampur railway station.Pertinently, the district administration has made elaborate arrangements for receiving these stranded people like online registration at the platform where 44 data entry operators have been deployed for the purpose. Transit management information system, a mobile app designed by District Administration Udhampur, has proved to be of great help in this hour of crisis.The returnees are being facilitated with proper guidance by the Duty Magistrates and concerned staff for online registration and other formalities in this regard. The returnees were also served refreshment and packed food.
Dwivedi interacted with the people in general and students in particular and enquired about their health and journey.As per details available, the returnees of these special trains belonged to almost all the districts of both Jammu and Kashmir Divisions.Meanwhile, testing of samples of people of Udhampur district and some other districts is also being carried out by the Health teams at the designated sampling centres.Pertinently, the Jammu & Kashmir Government has launched a web portal --http://jkmonitoring.nic.in/ to facilitate its residents stranded in other parts of the country. The portal, developed by NIC, enables giving updates to those registered and also allows a person to check his application status.All those who have registered online using the links opened by the J&K Government earlier NEED NOT register again. The web portal has already been updated with the details of the persons who have already registered throughwww.jktpo.in. All those who have registered can track the progress of their application.The government is arranging special trains from various stations across the country to bring back the stranded passengers to their home states/UTs. More than one train is being scheduled from one station if the number of stranded persons is large, eg; Delhi, Bengaluru, Thane/ Mumbai, etc. As and when a person’s turn comes to board the train, he/she shall be notified by way of SMS which will have the details of train timings, departure station, etc. Everyone will get accommodated and therefore there is no need to panic.In addition to the web portal, a dedicated 24X7 Covid-19 Helpline number - 0191-2466988 has been activated to assist the returnees and address their concerns. In order to have regulated arrival to enable testing and to control the spread of COVID -19, the portal allows the government to issue authorization for travel to individuals/groups as per the capacity. On approval of movement by the competent authority, i.e. the Nodal Officer, a SMS goes to the stranded person informing him of such authorization. This authorization is the consent of the Government of J&K to receive that person. This authorization can be downloaded or it can be kept in the electronic form on the mobile and has to be shown to the concerned District Magistrate for issuance of movement pass as per the SOP of the MHA in case of road journey.If the returnee is part of a group, the registration of only the Group Head has been updated on the portal – this is sufficient for grant of authorization or notifying for train journey through the group head, enabling the entire group to travel as and when the arrangements are in place. The portal provides for editing and adding information of the group by uploading the list of group members.