After a chaotic first few days that saw hundreds of people queuing up for hours at the police station to get a pass to move about the city, the Bangalore police have created an online portal to process these requests. Coded, tested and released in only three days, the portal has reduced the burden on both the cops and the public.

In an exclusive interview with Explocity -- to be published in the next few days -- the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), Dr Sharanappa SD requested that we make special mention of the process of the e-pass to apply for essential services.

We were given a tour of the quickly put together facilities. A four-member team processes all applications. They provided us with an on-the-job demo of the software they use. The UI is remarkably simple and consists of a page where the applicant and the reason for the application can be approved or rejected immediately.

However the process of rejection involves the physical bother of the police having to call the applicant in case of doubt or question to vet the application. This a tiring job but the team seemed tireless. They were very articulate in their explanation and equally, in their rationale for approving or denying an application.

We saw one particular company’s application rejected. This company was not in the list of essential services but nonetheless applied for several passes in what any responsible person would only term as irresponsible. One click and the application was denied.

The approval of an application is based on the original guidelines issued by the government and specifies a list of services deemed necessary for the conduct of life in the city. The implementation of the lockdown, or curfew, is administered under specific rules set by the Commissioner of Police.

We provide here an extract of the order, relevant to routine commercial services:

EXTRACT FROM THE ORDER - SECTION 4 

4. Commercial and private establishments shall be closed down.

Exceptions:

a) Shops, including ration shops (under PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder. However, district authorities may encourage and facilitate home delivery to minimize the movement of individuals outside their homes.

b) Banks, insurance offices and ATMs. includes IT Vendor for banking operations; Banking Correspondent and A TM operation and cash management agencies.

c) Print and electronic media

d) Telecommunications, internet services, broadcasting and cable services. IT and IT enabled Services only (for essential services) and as far as possible to work from home.

e) Delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment through E-commerce.

f) Petrol pumps, LPG, Petroleum and gas retail and storage outlets, shops for seeds and pesticides.

g) Power generation, transmission and distribution units and services.

h) Agencies engaged in procurement of agricultural products, including MSP operations.

i) Farming operations by farmers and farm workers in the field.

j) Manufacturing and packaging units of Fertilizers, Pesticides and Seeds.

k) Infra and Inter-state movement of harvesting and sowing related machines like combined harvester and other agriculture/horticulture implements.

HOW TO APPLY FOR AN ESSENTIAL SERVICES PASS

While there are two types of applications, for individuals and organisations, the portal for organisations is functioning as designed and the one for individuals, at the time of this writing, has some issues.

Given the thousands of applications being received by the cops every day and with modest teams handling the overload, we request that applicants follow the guidelines of the order on eligibility for the pass. 

(Apart from the extract above, the PDF of the order can be found at the bottom of this article.)

Follow this link: https://kspclearpass.mygate.com/signup.

Apply as an organization:

Please specify the nature of your business, how many employees you want passes for and be assured a team is working round the clock to ensure you get the required pass. 

Keep your phone handy because you will receive an OTP to register.

All other information will be communicated via email. If your pass is approved you will receive an email with a QR code that will serve as the pass on your mobile.

PDF of POLICE ORDER