The President’s Media Division (PMD) says that a new Circular on issuing curfew passes has been published.

In its fight against COVID-19, the government imposed an island-wide curfew, which was lifted and put in force from time to time, with the intention of preventing unnecessary public gatherings.

However, it has been observed that a large number of people are still queuing up at police stations to obtain curfew passes.

Taking this into account, as per the instructions received from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Acting IGP C.D. Wickramaratne has introduced a new procedure to issue curfew passes.

Accordingly, issuing curfew passes will be carried out in 4 ways by the Police Headquarters, offices of Senior DIGs in charge of each province, divisional Superintendents of Police (SPs) and police stations.

The Police Headquarters will be issuing curfew passes for any institution with 50 or more staff members residing in Colombo district.

Curfew passes for an institution with 50 or more staff members from Gampaha and Kalutara districts will be issued by the office of Senior DIG in charge of Western Province.

For an institution with 50 or more staff members from other provinces will be issued by the offices of the Senior DIGs in charge of each province.

Offices of SPs will handle issuing curfew passes for institutions with 10 or more and less than 50 employees from their respective police divisions.

Each police station will be in charge of issuing curfew passes for institutions with less than 10 employees in their areas. They are also authorized to issue permits to any individual on humanitarian grounds.

Employees of Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, ministries, departments, corporations, boards and authorities can use their service ID as a curfew pass.

However, legal action will be sought against those who misuse their service ID, the PMD stressed.

More details can be obtained from the official website of Sri Lanka Police – www.police.lk – and other websites of the government.