The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday decided to issue special passes to 963 of their employees and their family members, hailing from various places in the Valley, to travel back to their homes from the Winter Capital of the Union territory.
The decision was taken weeks before the slated closure of the UT's Civil Secretariat in its winter capital here on June 15.
As per the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the UT's Executive Committee guidelines, the intra district or intra-division travel have been banned in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and travels can be undertaken in cases of medical emergency or deaths.
In a communication on Friday, J&K General Administrative Department's Additional Secretary Rohit Sharma told Jammu Divisional commissioner Sanjeev Verma that the Lieutenant Governor administration has directed him to grant one time passes to 963 persons and their families living in government quarters for their travel to different destinations in Kashmir province.
They included Kashmiri employees and their families living in 12 different colonies in Jammu.
In reply to a query about the issuance of special passes to these people for travel, Jammu Divisional Commissioner Verma said that they have been given passes.
More From This Section
The lieutenant governor has instructed the administration to ensure zero movement of people from one region to another unless he or she has any grave medical emergency or death of their kin etc.
Over 1,000 employees of Kashmiri Pandits and their families living in several transit accommodation in Kashmir had earlier requested LG and Chief Secretary BRV Subramaniam to provide them special passes to facilitate their travel to Jammu in wake of COVID-19.
"If Kashmiri Muslim employees, whose Civil Secretariat offices are open, are given passes to travel to their homes in Kashmir, why did the chief secretary turn down their request for special passes for travel to Jammu from Kashmir," all-party migrant coordination committee (APMCC) Chairman Vinood Pandit said.
The number of coronavirus cases in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday soared to 454 with 27 more people testing positive for the infection in the Union territory, officials said.
All of the fresh cases were reported from the Kashmir division, they said.
With this, the total number of cases in Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 454. While 57 of these cases are from the Jammu division, 397 are from the Kashmir division, they said.