DINDIGUL
Collector M. Vijayalakshmi has warned omni bus, van and other tourist cab operators not to transport people without valid e-pass especially from other districts or States.
It follows complaints that vehicles, which left Dindigul to drop people in other districts and States, picked up passengers who wanted to come here on their return trips. Checks at specially installed check-posts indicated that none of the passengers had valid e-pass.
She ordered the Regional Transport Officer to seize and impound such vehicles and take action against erring drivers for being negligent.
Such acts by some people irked the official machinery at a time when the district administration had been taking very many measures to tackle the COVID-19 spread.
An officer attached to the Department of Health and Family Welfare said that people from Dindigul city, who were employed in Bangaluru and Gujarat, recently got into a mini-van which had gone to drop a batch of workers in Hosur after applying e-pass.
At least four among the people who arrived had symptoms of COVID-19 and two tested positive. Similarly, some men belonging to Dindigul, who were from Gujarat too, had sneaked into the district in a similar fashion, he added.
A meeting was convened at the office of the RTO on Friday where cab operators and representatives from the tourist van welfare association members participated.
They agreed to cooperate with the officials during the COVID-19 pandemic times and assured that they would sensitise their drivers and conductors not to encourage unauthorised people to board their vehicles.
