Covid-19

No migrant allowed without COVID negative report, says Srinagar Admin after 113 turn out positive

‘There are no brick kilns operating in District Srinagar’

Srinagar: A day after 113 around out of 14,937 non-locals who were brought into the valley by in buses last week were reported COVID positive, the Srinagar administration issued an order that read no migrant worker would be allowed to enter Srinagar without a negative COVID report.

The administration also issued guidelines and appointed a nodal officer for the regulated entry of non-local labourers.

The Department of Labour and Employment shall be Nodal Department for ensuring end to end arrangements for incoming Labour to ensure their regulated entry, compulsory COVID testing, distancing norms and SOPs at places of work and stay.

“It has been decided that Rapid Antigen Testing/RT-PCR (Real Time Polymerize Chain Reaction) shall be done on arrival in districts. The scheme has been notified keeping in view the large workforce of brick kilns. There are no brick kilns operating in District Srinagar however labour for construction activities and infrastructure projects has been reported to be arriving in some cases. Further, there is also need to have in place strict arrangements to ensure that all required protocols are followed to avoid spread of COVID,” said a spokesperson.

“Asst Labour Commissioner, Srinagar shall remain stationed at Pantha-chowk to coordinate entry Labour and compulsory testing at designated camp and further SOPs to be adopted at places of work and stay. Each worker/labourer shall be given a unique ID number by Labor Department to ensure his tracking and surveillance, compulsorily indicating mobile number and other particulars.”

Any vehicles found ferrying labourers without permission shall be seized and a fine of 20,000 rupees shall be imposed, the order issued under The Disaster Management Act and The Epidemic Diseases Act read.

Earlier in the day, a local news agency, KNT reported locals in Arizal area of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district were up in arms against district administration for admitting over 30 COVID infected non-local labourers at a government school in the area. The locals demanded immediate shifting of these labourers from the area.

“The school building is surrounded by village population and there are chances that infection may spread in the area and we may get infected too,” locals told KNT.

Free Press Kashmir repeatedly tried to reach out to Deputy Commisssioner Budgam, Shahbaz Mirza for his comments on the matter but he did not respond to our calls.

Free Press Kashmir also tried to reach out to Deputy Commissioner Anantnag, KK Sidha, to get an updating figure of COVID samples collected of non-locals, but he did not respond to our calls.

 

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