हिंदी
KATHUA, OCTOBER 19
With improvement in situation at Lakhanpur, the authorities have somehow managed to reduce halt timing of the commuters to 10 – 15 minutes as a result almost 2500 LMVs and 2800 trucks passed through the inter-UT/State border in last 24 hours. The procedure of entry and exit of passengers has been enhanced by augmenting covid-19 testing facility and other needs of counters have resulted in reducing the halt-age time of passengers to 10 to 15 minutes maximum.
The HMV and LMV counters have also been setup by opening more counters to avoid heavy rush and sampling points (counters) have also been increased from 6 to 12 which has increased efficiency and reduced time to handle the commuters at the entry point. This has increased the incoming and outgoing people as a result of which 6000 to 7000 passengers daily enter into J&K or go out of the UT through Lakhanpur. Meanwhile, the separate green counters have been set-up for HMV-LMV Kathua based passengers to cater to daily travelling. The supporting staff from the Higher Education Department has been moved at all the newly counters to make greater arrangements of already existing manpower.
The Government had appointed Talat Parvez, Commissioner Secretary Higher Education Department, as overall in-charge at Lakhanpur to oversee movement of passengers. With his appointment, management arrangements saw a change in delivery system and public service has also been improvised in the shortest time period. In this arrangement, the inter-state buses drop their passengers and labourers at Lakhanpur and then they board SRTC buses only after being tested for COVID-19 using Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) kits. The negative passengers/labourers and commuters are allowed to move towards their destinations and the people including drivers, if detected positive, are being shifted to COVID-19 care centres established in Kathua district.
Besides, commuters traveling in their own vehicles have to make self-declaration at Lakhanpur and this has also helped the management to reduce halt timing. Around 100 drivers daily get tested for COVID to into Jammu and Kashmir from Lakhanpur and the positive drivers are being shifted to COVID care centres. The SOPs for people in poor health and ambulances are being followed strictly but they are being helped at Lakhanpur to reach their destinations without difficulties and observance of all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) described under COVID-19 measures.
