Kerala police 'Corona Care' app tracks goods vehicle entering the district borders

In the wake of the increasing number of people illegally crossing the border to Kerala from Tamil Nadu through the Aryankavu check-post, the Kollam rural police have enhanced vigil along the borders. To track the details of the vehicles and persons leaving and entering the borders the police have launched a 'Corona Care' application. The goods vehicle which enters the district will be tracked at every district borders unless it leaves the state and if someone is found entering illegally through these vehicles a case will be registered against the owner and the person will be sent for quarantine at the corona care centre.

The application launched by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) was customised especially for this purpose with the help of the Kerala police cyber cell team. "Such an initiative was started, as after lockdown several persons were caught by the police for illegally crossing the borders by hiding in the goods vehicle. As per the government guidelines, three persons - 2 drivers and a cleaner are allowed in such vehicles. However, some persons took advantage of this chance to cross the borders and reach and leave the state. After we found that in many scenarios persons entering the district were not the ones leaving the borders, we came up with such an application to track their details," said Harishankar, Kollam rural SP.

Functions of the app:

As soon as a goods vehicle enters the district, the officials on duty will note down the registration number of their vehicle in the app and also upload the photos and other details of all the three persons travelling in the vehicle. Their destination will also be marked in the app and through this, the respective panchayat and police officials will be alerted about their information with their photos to check their identity.

"In every district border, our personnel are using this app. Once a goods vehicle enters their border area, they could enter the vehicle's registration number and check the personal details along with his photograph. Once the details are rechecked by the respective area officials, the vehicle will be allowed and in case of any violation or missing person the vehicle will be stopped and a case will be registered against them," said the rural SP.

The SP informed that it has been a week now, that the police has launched the application and is tracking the vehicles through it. In these 7 days with the help of this app, as many as 4 cases have been registered by the rural police across the district. "Also, the number of violation has declined to some extent after the launch of the application," said Harishankar.