Have app to track those advised to quarantine: Secunderabad firm

HYDERABAD: Underlining the need to geo-fence international air passengers who have been advised self quarantine, a public interest petition was filed by a Secunderabad-based IT firm in the Telangana high court expressing its readiness to assist authorities with an app for this purpose.
Director of Containe Technologies, Anand Kumar Seethala, informed the court that they had developed an application — Janata Tracker — and requested the court to direct the state to consider their offer for effective monitoring and for social distancing to contain the spread of coronavirus.“We will assist the state free of cost,” the petitioner said.
What we need is the information of returnees to be uploaded on our app. People who have been advised self-quarantine should not flout the norms...(while) some are flouting norms out of ignorance or negligence and this is where our app would (help) monitor them and keep the government informed,” the petitioner said.
Responding to the urgent mention made by petitioner’s counsel PVA Padmanabham, a bench of MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice T Amarnath Goud on Monday asked the petitioner to first approach the state and other authorities with their suggestion and solutions.
The petitioner, through his plea, said that the app had four types of user-interfaces (UI) — an individual patient, a health worker, a doctor and an authority such as police. All UIs are integrated into one application. “The functionality at different levels are well protected and controlled to prevent misuse. Monitoring authorities can periodically check the health status and suggest future course of action. Even the user can raise a request for hospital pick up in case of emergencies,” the petitioner said.
On the working of the app, the court was informed that government functionaries at various ports of entries in India or at checkposts would ensure that the application was downloaded and critical data is entered before the returnee is permitted to go home and remain quarantined. A call center service would be offered, the petitioner said, to follow up with the persons who have already entered into the country based on the mobile numbers collected by Bureau of Immigration.