Lockdown pass piques public curiosity, but not many takers

Citizens have shown a keen interest in procuring a ‘movement pass’ for emergency travel as a strict weeklong lockdown came into force amid an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths in Bangladesh.

A day after introducing the pass, the police's website clocked 21,337 hits per minute until 6 pm Wednesday.

Despite that, the number of registrations is still low. While scores of people visited the website, few went on to complete the application process. Police officials believe many people are visiting the website only 'out of curiosity'.

According to the latest data from the Police Headquarters, the website received around 78 million views from 11 am Tuesday to 7 pm Wednesday.

In the same period, the police received 310,000 applications and issued 250,000 passes.

Applications started rolling in within the first hour of the app going online on Tuesday. Around 15,000 applications were made each minute during that time.

The police introduced the movement pass for citizens to stymie the spread of the virus during the 7-day lockdown.

It aims to regulate ‘uncontrolled and unnecessary’ movement and to facilitate travel in cases of emergency.

A tense atmosphere pervaded Dhaka on the first day of the 'all-out lockdown' on Wednesday as both city dwellers and police personnel have had varying experiences with the movement pass.

While the streets of Dhaka were mostly deserted, many people were seen wandering in the alleys. Most of them came out to buy essential items and groceries. But many of them were not carrying movement passes.

Rakibul Hasan came to the kitchen market next to the Khilgaon rail crossing at 2 pm. "My home is just 10 minutes away from the kitchen market so I didn't collect the pass. But I have followed the health directives."

"Commuters in the area are being asked to show their movement passes since the morning. Masks are also being provided to those who are not wearing one," SI Binoy, who was manning the police checkpost at the Khilgaon rail crossing, told bdnews24.com.

Several people in the area, however, were seen wandering without masks.

Asked about the matter, Binoy said, "How many people can we keep an eye on? We are trying as hard as we can so that no-one is outdoors without justification. Many people did not have a pass because they live nearby."

A few policemen were deployed to the Shahjahanpur police checkpost opposite the Rajarbagh Police Lines. Those who were entering the area were stopped and asked to produce their passes. However, most of them did not have one and displayed their office ID cards instead. Many were also returning home from the market.

Shahjahanpur Police SI Mumtaz said, "Around 25 to 30 people have been able to show movement passes since the morning. Most of them have collected passes for shopping, buying drugs or going to the supermarkets. Those who did not have either a pass or a valid reason for being out had their cars turned away. We will let people through if they can have adequate reasons to go out."

The officer in charge of the Shantinagar Traffic Police Box said, "There are very few people on the streets today. Many people have come out with passes. But many do not know about the movement passes. Many do not have smartphones."

Police vehicles also patrolled various parts of the capital while instructing those who were out in the streets to head home immediately via loudspeakers.

Meanwhile, many people complained that they were unable to enter the police website to collect the 'movement pass' despite several attempts.

Fazlur Rahman, who works for a private company, said, "I live in Jhigatola. My mother needs some essential medicines, which are only available in Shahbag. I tried to collect the movement pass from 10 am to 1 pm. But I couldn't access the site. "

Bilkis Akhter of Sutrapur said, "I am supposed to get vaccinated tomorrow. My son could not apply for the movement pass today even after trying for a long time."

ASP Farhad Kabir of the Police Headquarters' ICT department said, "We did not realise that the website would get so many hits within a day of its launch."

"Two servers from our own data centre were initially being used for skill-up and load balancing work but we later had to employ seven more servers due to the numbers of hits on the website."

"On the first day, many people entered the site out of curiosity. As a result, there was a problem with the applications due to some issues with the server. But now it has become much smoother as a result of the adjustment. A backup server has also been kept on standby."

Although it can be accessed from desktop or laptop without any issue, people prefer to use their mobile phones to visit the website but it can take 'several reloads' to enter, according to Farhad.