Srinagar: The Srinagar district administration on Wednesday said that migrant workers will be allowed to enter city only after testing negative for COVID19.
“It has been decided that Rapid Antigen Testing/ RT-PCR (Real Time Polymerize Chain Reaction) shall be done on arrival in districts. The scheme has been notified keeping in view the large workforce of brick kilns. There are no brick kilns operating in District Srinagar however labor for construction activities and infrastructure projects has been reported to be arriving in some cases. Further, there is also need to have in place strict arrangements to ensure that all required protocols are followed to avoid spread of COVID,” read the order issued by Chairman, DDMA Srinagar.
According to official order, “Any vehicles found ferrying laborers without permission shall be seized, imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 and shall not be released till the cost of Rapid Antigens Testing/ RT-PCR and other logistics is recovered from owner of vehicle/contractor. Likewise, the labour contractors shall be booked for any violation of norms at places of work or stay. A fine of Rs 50,000 shall be imposed on contractor for violation of norms. All the costs including testing, logistics etc shall be recovered from the contractor wherever unauthorized movement of labor is found.”
The Department of Labour and Employment shall be Nodal Department for ensuring end to end arrangements for incoming Labour to ensure their regulated entry, compulsory COVID testing, distancing norms and SOPs at places of work and stay.
Deputy Labour Commissioner shall personally oversee the arrangements and personally monitor the process. He shall be designated officer under The Disaster Management Act 2005, for the said purpose.
Asstt Labour Commissioner, Srinagar shall remain stationed at Pantha-chowk to coordinate entry Labour and compulsory testing at designated camp and further SOPs to be adopted at places of work and stay. Each worker/ labourer shall be given a unique ID number by Labor Department to ensure his tracking and surveillance, compulsorily indicating mobile number and other particulars. Any lapse in management shall be personal responsibility of concerned officers.
The Deputy Labor Commissioner / Asstt Labor Commissioner shall establish a Control Room at Panthachowk for overall coordination. The control room shall have representatives from all the departments deputed already at disposal of Tehsildar Panthachowk. They shall coordinate with Lakhanpur and JT teams and ensure that no entry is allowed beyond the manifest received.
Any case of illegal entry beyond the manifest shall be put under the category of mandatory paid quarantine at Pantahchowk camp.
