Kathmandu, May 12

The Ministry of Home Affairs today decided to invalidate all passes issued by district administration offices across the country, allowing vehicles to ply from one district to another.

This means only vehicles transporting most essential goods, such as medicines and food, will be allowed into the valley, added MoHA.

The MoHA stated that the decision was introduced to make the lockdown more effective, as the number of coronavirus cases had increased in the country in the past two days.

MoHA’s Information Officer Uma Kanta Adhikari told THT that with this decision, vehicles plying the streets on the basis of time-card issued a few days ago would have to get new passes issued from the authorities concerned.

A few days ago, the government had allowed certain government offices, construction companies, businesses and industries to operate vehicles during certain time slots.

The new rule issued today also makes it mandatory for all government staff to obtain vehicle passes from the authorities concerned.

Mediapersons, however, can move around in vehicles showing passes obtained from the Department of Information and Broadcasting.

Earlier today, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had expressed dissatisfaction with the easing of the lockdown after the number of vehicles on the streets surged.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 12, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.