A few days ago, given the decreasing cases of the corona, the state government of Himachal Pradesh had issued orders to open its borders for tourists. According to these guidelines, tourists will not have to undergo an RT-PCR test to visit Himachal. With this, Section 144 was also removed in the state.
Thousands of vehicles started queuing on the highway as soon as the state government got a slight relaxation in the Corona guidelines. In fact, to celebrate the weekend on Sunday, thousands of people went out to visit the valleys of Himachal. The road on the highway was blocked due to a large number of people coming together. Due to this, the traffic came to a complete halt.
Shimla
Keeping this situation in mind, the state government has issued a new guideline for tourists. Due to this, it will be mandatory for people coming from other states to take the Covid-19 e-pass to enter Himachal Pradesh.
According to the guidelines, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that, however, the state government has now removed the RT-PCR negative report. But this does not mean that tourists will be allowed to violate the Covid-19 rules. He said that it will be mandatory for the tourists coming to the state to register themselves on the Covid e-pass software so that they can be monitored.
According to the CM, for the Covid e-pass, people will have to enter their arrival information as well as all other details in the online system. With this, the information of tourists coming to Himachal will be shared with the stakeholders, so that there is no negligence of any kind.
Himachal Pradesh Tourism
According to Shimla Superintendent of Police Mohit Chawla, at least 5000 vehicles entered Shimla through Shoghi Barrier after the RT-PCR rule was removed. They believe that there may be an increase in tourist arrivals during the weekend. Therefore it is necessary to ensure that all tourists strictly follow the Covid protocol.
He also said that policemen would be deployed in the entire district who would keep an eye on the movement of all the tourists. The patrolling parties will guide the tourists and try to ensure that the COVID protocol is strictly followed by the tourists.
Hundreds of tourists reached Himachal last week after the government relaxed the Covid rules. Due to this, hotel occupancy increased to about 40 percent within a week. According to reports, about 10 thousand people have applied for Covid e-pass to enter Himachal. Out of these, 7 thousand passes have been rejected for giving wrong information.
7 FIRs were registered against tourists found violating social distancing in Shimla. According to reports, during the last year, 8000 people were fined for not wearing masks and Rs 52 lakh has been recovered from them as a fine.