Vij pushes for tighter curbs on Haryana-Delhi border
CHANDIGARH: Following a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital region (NCR) districts of Haryana, health minister Anil Vij on Thursday sought stringency in free movement of people from Delhi.
Top officials said that fresh curbs meant that those who don’t have e-movement passes and don’t fall in the approved category of essential service providers as per the directions of the ministry of home affairs will not be allowed to commute from Delhi to Haryana.
“Following relaxations in lockdown 4.0, the to and fro movement of people from Delhi to Haryana had increased. There is a possibility that the authorities in the NCR districts have lowered their guard and are allowing unhindered access,’’ said an official who did not wish to be named.
The home minister is learnt to have expressed concern at the rising number of cases in the state due to free movement of people from the national capital.
The state government had on May 14 given an undertaking before the Delhi High Court that movement of persons from Delhi to Haryana would be allowed on production of e-passes.
These movement passes were to be issued to all persons engaged in providing essential services, including medical professionals, within 30 minutes of the receipt of application.
Each e-pass is valid for the entire duration of the lockdown and can be used for multiple vis- its, the state government had told the HC.
The state government had taken a stand before the court that since about 56% of the coronavirus cases in the national capital region (NCR) districts — Gurugram, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Sonepat — had Delhi links, it will allow back and forth movement of medical professionals from Delhi only on production of movement passes.
AMBALA GETS CORONA TESTING LAB
AMBALA: Haryana health minister Anil Vij on Thursday inaugurated a molecular testing laboratory in Ambala.
The lab in Ambala City’s Sector 10 is the sixth such facility in Haryana and has got its approval from ICMR, New Delhi. Earlier, samples for Covid-19 testing used to be sent to labs in Chandigarh, Karnal, Sonepat, Rohtak and Gurugram from Ambala.
Vij said, “There are 14 testing machines currently in Haryana, where 5,100 samples can be tested daily. When this outbreak started, there was not even a single testing machine in the state and all samples had to be sent to Pune. Now, this lab will help Ambala as well as the nearby districts.” Ambala CMO Dr Kuldeep Singh, “The lab is equipped with machines such as TrueNAT, CBNAAT and RT-PCR. Once regulated, these machines can conduct about 300 tests daily. Two of these machines can test a sample and give a report within an hour.”