Homecoming relief after anxious moments at Noida-Delhi border

Noida: For 33-year-old Ghaziabad resident Sunit Kumar, homecoming turned out to be as harrowing an experience as being stranded in Nagpur for two months. The reason — like several flyers, he had failed to register himself at the UP government Covid portal before boarding the flight.

Sunit, who is posted as a site engineer at the under-construction AIIMS hospital in Nagpur, told TOI that when he reached the Noida-Delhi border at Kalindi Kunj, he was stopped by a traffic policeman who had been undertaking checking there.

“The traffic cop asked me to show a pass. When I told him that as per, a government notification, my flight ticket would serve as my pass, he started saying that I would be put into a quarantine centre and they would call an ambulance,” he said. However, it was only after he managed to speak to senior police officers, that he was allowed to go.

Sunit said that he had been waiting for domestic flights to resume since the lockdown came into effect was ecstatic to return home. “My wife is a housewife and I have two schoolgoing kids. I had been telling my friends here to ensure they keep getting ration. I will now purchase text books for my children,” he said.

Though the UP government had claimed that all flyers would have to register themselves at https://reg.upcovid.in, most of them were unaware about the procedure and rued that the guidelines came only on Sunday while they had booked their tickets in advance.

AK Sehgal, a senior executive of a power company who too came to Delhi from Nagpur via a flight, said while he had booked his flight ticket on May 21, he failed to get any information about the necessary registration on the portal and the fact that all those returning to UP and staying here for longer, would remain in home quarantine for 14 days.

“I was planning to return after around 8-10 days but now, I have to plan according to the rules which I will find out now. In Delhi, there is no such provision of quarantine which should have been followed here as well. If people were aware in the starting, they would refrain from booking tickets,” he said.

While Noida police had been briefed about allowing such people to cross the border with their ticket serving as their pass, not all commuters could easily get through.

However, DCP (Noida) Sankalp Sharma said checking was not relaxed anywhere. “If a particular commuter had problems at the Kalindi Kunj, it would have to be checked but all junior officers were briefed about the fact that domestic fliers would be allowed to go after showing their ticket,” he said.

DM Suhas LY said he has contacted the UP technical unit and the UP surveillance team for providing access to the data of people from Gautam Budh Nagar who would have registered on the government portal.

“The data will be shared once it reaches us. I have spoken to the Delhi airport authorities and asked them to flash a banner on their premises about the registration on the portal. The government issued guidelines on Sunday and CISF officials have also been asked to check the registration,” he said.