Bengaluru, Dec 31 (UNI) Majority of returnees from United Kingdom who arrived in Karnataka after the new strain of Covid-19 was detected in Britain, are still at large without bothering for the State government's warning about consequences they may have to face.
The number of international passengers who could not be contacted in the state increased to about 300, but police and health officials said they have now traced all but 50 of them.
Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar described the holdouts as either having wrong information or those who have switched off their phones. “The Home Department has assured that all of them will be traced within 24 hours,” he said.
According to DCP Central M N Anucheth, nodal officer of the Police Task Force in charge of the tracing operation, many of the traced individuals have told police that they were using a local SIM in lieu of their international numbers.
At the same time, they continued to use WhatsApp accounts tied to their previous numbers,” the DCP said.
Police added that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had not made an attempt to reach the individuals through WhatsApp. The BBMP acknowledged that it lacked the means to conduct tracing through electronic media.
“Our primary tool of tracing are phone numbers and sending a mobile team to the address. We don’t have the means to conduct tracing using other electronic avenues, such as WhatsApp or email. If such tracing methods are needed, we refer the matter to the police,” said Rajendra Cholan, Special Commissioner, BBMP.
An assessment of government data on 2,158 passengers shows that the government had collated a list of local or Indian mobile phone numbers for 95.79 per cent of passengers. About 4.2 per cent of passengers had given only foreign phone numbers.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,669 passengers had given phone numbers based in the United Kingdom, the United States or Europe. Many of these people had also given Indian numbers. Total 365 passengers have given only Indian numbers.
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