Bengaluru cops issue 12-hour passes for emergencies

The city police are issuing passes valid for 12 hours to those wanting to visit hospitals due to medical emergencies.

The passes are available in all law and order police stations. Citizens can get them from the station in their jurisdiction by depositing any original identity proof. They can later return the passes and collect their document.

Hemanth Nimbalkar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration), said in his press statement that the police have been receiving numerous requests for passes to facilitate the movement of people within the city amid the lockdown for the purposes of pregnancy, childbirth, accident and demise of a family member.

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He said the online pass system cannot deal with exceptional cases, which need the local police’s intervention to verify the genuineness. The police inspector in-charge of the local station has been empowered to issue the passes, which, once the exigency is over, the person concerned must return to the same police station.

The 200 emergency passes issued to each police station have serial numbers and a record of whoever is taking them will be maintained.

"The original ID proof will remain at the station until the pass is returned," Nimbalkar said.

The officer in-charge must maintain a record of the people who have taken the passes with a mention of the date and time.