COVID-19 has taken its toll on the already stretched Customs department with nearly 30 of its officials forced into home quarantine after coming into contact with people either tested positive or suspected of the pandemic.
Though none of them have so far shown any symptoms of the disease they nevertheless continue to serve the 14-day home quarantine.
Among the officials on home quarantine include a batch of 10 officials at the Karipur airport, eight at the headquarters preventive team in Kochi, three at Kannur airport and two at Thiruvananthapuram airport.
No direct entry
“We have, therefore, issued an order banning the direct entry of people into all our offices to avoid any kind of potential contact while restricting appointments to prior approval through mail or phone. However, mandatory number of personnel will be retained at airports, air cargo, preventive commissionerate and divisions. Unaccompanied baggage and cargo already landed at airports, especially from affected countries like Iran and Italy, will be cleared subjected to mandatory quarantine as per the Central guidelines,” said Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar.
Officers belonging to high risk category, engaged in non-essential staff functions, using public conveyance to reach office or were vulnerable owing to health issues have been allowed to work from home.
Minimum staff
The customs preventive commissionerate will function with minimum staff strength and will be out of bounds for visitors at least till the month-end.
However, the work from home option will not be available to some special wings, including preventive, marine, and rummaging and intelligence.
Mr. Kumar said that further orders would be issued after examining the order of total lockdown by State government.
A batch of 10 officials at Karipur airport had to be sent into home quarantine after it emerged that a resident of Kasaragod, whose antecedents are now being questioned, who came from Dubai on an Air India Express flight on March 11 was tested positive for COVID-19. The same team had dealt with two of his suspected accomplices who were also later sent into home quarantine.
This has left the customs authorities fuming and even questioning the standard operating procedures being followed in screening passengers at airports.
Smugglers
Mr. Kumar said that the smugglers, however, seem to be treating the outbreak of the epidemic as a blessing in disguise and trying to take advantage of the restrictions being in place to rein in the spread of the disease.
“The regular seizures of gold and other contraband proves that the epidemic has hardly served as a deterrent with smugglers obviously showing no regard either for their own health or that of others,” Mr. Kumar said.
For instance, in the last two days alone the Customs Preventive Department and Air Intelligence Unit at Kozhikode seized gold compound weighing around 1,197 gm from a passenger from Muscat; two gold bars from a passenger from Sharjah; gold weighing around 3,788 gm from three different passengers from Abu Dhabi and Dubai; and 1,360 gm of gold from two passengers from Bahrain by flight.
