New mechanism to issue curfew passes introduced

The Government imposes curfew from time to time with the objective of preventing unwanted congregation of people in the wake of COVID – 19 outbreak. It has been observed that excessively number of people gather at Police Stations to obtain curfew passes during curfew periods. Such large gathering of people is a major hindrance to Coronavirus mitigation activities.

In this context, under the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickremarathna had implemented a new mechanism to issue curfew passes. Accordingly, issuing curfew passes will be handled at 04 levels of Police administration.

They are the Police Headquarters, Office of the Deputy Inspector General in each Province, the Office of the Superintendent of Police in charge of a Division and Police Stations.

Curfew passes for entities with 50 or more employees located in the district of Colombo, Western Province will be issued by the Police Headquarters. The Office of the Senior Deputy Inspector General in charge of the Western Province will be entrusted with issuing passes to organizations with 50 or more employees located in the districts of Gampaha and Kalutara in the Province.

In all other Provinces, the Office of the Senior Deputy Inspector General in charge of the Province is authorized issue curfew permits to organizations with 50 or more employees located in the respective Province.

The Office of the Superintendent of Police in each Police Division will issue curfew passes to entities that have 10 or more but less than 50 employees in the respective police division.

Each police station is tasked with issuing passes to organizations with less than 10 employees located in the police area under its purview. Police stations are also permitted to issue passes to individuals on genuine humanitarian grounds.

The Acting IGP informs entities to decide in advance to which office they should forward their application for curfew passes.  Applications to obtain curfew passes should be submitted only on reasonable grounds.

Employees of the Presidential Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministries, Departments, Corporations, Boards and Authorities, several other organizations including banks and media entities can utilize their Official Identity Cards as a curfew pass. Nevertheless, legal actions will be taken against those who use their Official IDs for traveling without any official purpose during curfew hours.

The circular which specifies the new regulations on curfew permits is available on www.police.lk and on government news websites.