Long queue at police station for travel papers
KLANG: The South Klang police station has seen long lines of people queuing up to get interstate travel passes since the second round of the movement control order was implemented.
South Klang OCPD Asst Comm Shamsul Amar Ramli said they saw an average of 1,007 people per day asking for passes in the last 15 days of the MCO.
He added that police issued 15,116 passes from Jan 13-31 and 2,147 passes from Feb 1-3.
“The total number of applications were 17,263 and 1,954 were rejected. We have a daily ration of 785 applications,” said ACP Shamsul Amar.
He added that 70% of the applicants applied for the pass for work purposes, 10% for medical treatment, 10% for emergencies such as funerals, 5% to visit their spouses and 5% for marriage-related purposes.
ACP Shamsul Amar said 75% of the 1,954 rejected applications were due to the absence of necessary supporting documents, 15% because the funerals they wanted to attend weren’t that of a close relative and 10% for not having a valid reason.
The queue at the police station usually starts at about 7am.
Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners (Primas) secretary N. Shanmugam, 46, said it only took him 45 minutes to get his travel pass despite the long queue.
“They have a good system in place where five people are sent in at one time to process their application at the counter,” he said.
Taxi driver C. Satkunaseelan said he had directed some passengers to go to the police station to obtain the travel pass after they flagged him down to take them out of Klang.
“We taxi drivers don’t have to get the pass but the passengers have to get it to travel in our taxis,” he said.