Media persons exempt from carrying e-pass during night curfew: DDMA

People working with electronic and the print media will not require e-passes for travelling in the national capital during the night curfew between 10 pm to 5 am.

In its new order, the DDMA has exempted mediapersons from the need to carry e-passes during night curfew hours, a fresh order issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said.

"In partial modification of order dated 6/4/2021 with regard to imposition of night curfew in the NCT of Delhi, the DDMA directs that the category of 'Print and Electronic Media' shall be exempt from the restriction of movement during night curfew on production of valid 'I Card' instead of possession of e-pass. Rest of the contents of the aforesaid order would remain unchanged," DDMA order reads.

The decision has come in view of several media persons have been complaining about several issues related to e-pass after the DDMA in its April 6 order has mandated that the media persons would require e-passes for travelling during the night curfew.

The DDMA, on April 6 has ordered a night curfew in the national capital between 10 pm to 5 am in view of increasing Covid-19 cases in the city. The authority has so far received a total of 1,19,369 applications of which only 12,068 were approved. As many as 86,909 applications were rejected.

Meanwhile, Delhi recorded 7,437 fresh Covid -19 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day surge this year, while 24 more people died due to the Coronavirus infection, taking the death toll to 11,157, according to the Delhi Government.

The number of active cases rose to 23,181. This is also the first time that over 7,000 cases have been reported in a day this year. The highest single-day spike in Delhi till date - 8,593 cases was reported on November 11.