Night operations of IT/ITES companies, maintenance and operation of data centres and other critical IT infrastructure necessary to support back-end operations of medical, financial, transport and other critical services will be permitted in Tamil Nadu even during the night curfew and Sunday lockdowns, the State government said on Tuesday.
Telecommunication and related activities, warehousing functions, including loading, unloading and storage of goods, have also been permitted during the night curfew and Sunday lockdowns, a G.O. issued in this regard by Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan stated. “In the case of other industries that are not exempted, essential maintenance for purposes of fire, machine and worker safety shall be permitted on Sundays,” it said.
Units manufacturing drugs, pharmaceuticals, sanitation materials, oxygen, medical devices, medical textiles, their raw material components and their intermediates, food-related/food processing industries, including food for poultry, pets and animal husbandry and units engaged in the production of agricultural inputs including fertilisers, agricultural machinery and their components, could be considered “industries manufacturing essential commodities”, and hence, the night curfew and Sunday lockdowns would not apply to them, it stated.
All export units, those with export commitments or orders and their vendor units providing inputs to such industries, units that supply components/equipment for the defence sector, industries of automobiles and their components used in defence, agriculture and health sectors and those that produce packaging materials for all the above categories would also be considered “industries manufacturing essential commodities”.
As for units that can be considered “continuous process industries”, the government listed out the following: refineries, large steel plants (including TMT bar manufacturers), large cement plants, continuous process chemical industries, including paints, sugar mills, fertilisers, float glass plants, large foundries with a continuous process, tyre manufacturing plants, large paper mills, electronics industries using surface-mount technology, including mobile phones and consumer electronic products, automobile manufacturing units that have larger foundries, paint shops or other continuous processes and vertically integrated large textile units.
The government directed all industries to rigorously follow COVID-19 safety procedures such as adequate physical distancing on the shop floor and during transport and dining, use of masks, employee health monitoring, vaccination, necessary disinfection and sanitation measures. The Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation and respective Collectors have been instructed to ensure compliance with the order.
