Passengers stopped at Gaggal airport

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 8

After reports surfaced that some people were making fake entries on Covid e-pass portals to enter the state, the administration today stopped flight passengers from Delhi and Chandigarh at the Gaggal airport in Kangra today morning.

Many passengers, who had pre-approved Covid e-passes, were also stopped at the airport and asked to re-register. This irked many passengers who alleged that they were being harassed.

Earlier, the passengers were being allowed to go after scanning of Covid e-passes.

Sources said an administrative official acted on his own and started asking the flight passengers to re-register themselves on the Covid e-portal at the airport. Since the move created a rush, it was resisted by some local passengers who said officials could just match their Aadhaar Card numbers with the information given in Covid e-passes rather than forcing them to re-register.

Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, Rakesh Prajapati said, “After some reports surfaced that some people were making fake entries on the Covid e-portal to gain entry to the state, we are verifying the credentials of people coming with Covid e-passes.”

On Friday, the Himachal police had stated that some people were entrying the state after getting Covid e-passes issued in the names of Bollywood stars.