Help desks to address inter-dist travel between Mangaluru, Kasaragod

MANGALURU: The Dakshina Kannada district administration is observing due diligence in allowing bonafide people from Kasaragod to travel to the for their work. With 14-day quarantine otherwise mandatory for people coming from Kerala, the district administration is monitoring the daily pass system to prevent its misuse. A help desk has been set up at Talapady to address emergent issues, deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said.
This issue took a political hue with Congress leader UT Khader on this side of the border and the president of Kasaragod unit of BJP K Shreekanth on the other taking up cudgels on behalf of their respective constituents. Both Khader and Shreekanth had slammed the delay on part of the authorities in Dakshina Kannada in facilitating movement of people in the adjoining districts for their daily routine including education and livelihood.
Shreekanth told TOI that the situation has vastly improved ever since they protested against the delay in issuing passes at the inter-state border at Talapady on Monday. “We are thankful to BJP leaders in Dakshina Kannada district especially former Kerala BJP in-charge and DK member of parliament Nalin Kumar Kateel for understanding our plight and smoothing things out,” he said.
On June 3, the DK district administration had issued an SOP for interstate travel of daily commuters, especially students, merchants and professionals from Kasaragod working in Mangaluru. As per the SOP, medical and other professionals, government officials and students from Kasaragod were required to register on https://bit.ly/dkpermit to obtain a regular commuters’ pass that is valid till the end of the month.
Sindhu said the only area of concern was to establish the bonafides of the applicants. “Hence, we insisted on those applying for pass to furnish a letter from their employer, institution to establish the genuineness of their request,” she said.
The help desk has been set up at Talapady on directed by district minister Kota Shrinivas Poojary, she said, adding the administration is in touch with its counterparts in Kasaragod to address ticklish issues.