A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the State government to put in place elaborate guidelines to be followed with respect to movement of goods into the State from other States and the safety protocols to be adhered to by lorry drivers, cleaners and the load men.
Justices M. Sathyanaryanan and M. Nirmal Kumar took up the petition filed by United Labour Federation through video conferencing on Tuesday. In an affidavit, federation president K. Mariyappan that no guidelines had been put in place so far with respect to movement of goods.
K. Mariyappan, president of the federation, stated that though the State government had permitted movement of both essential as well as non-essential goods from other States, it had not laid down any standard operating procedure or guidelines or safety protocols to be followed by those who transport those goods.
Given that the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the State has been steadily increasing in the last few days and in order to prevent the State from entering into the stage of community transmission, it was essential that all goods vehicles entering the State were sanitised and safety protocols were prescribed for the labourers, he stressed.
