There is no change in the mandate for obtaining e-pass for inter-district/ inter-state movement of vehicles in Tamil Nadu during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, according to Chief Secretary K.Shanmugam.
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The mention of the reference, in the Unlock 3 guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday, to the bar on States in imposing intra-State and inter-State movement has prompted many to wonder whether the requirement for getting e-passes has been done away with.
This is because of two sentences in the paragraph 5 of the guidelines on Unlock 3. They are: “However, there shall be no restriction on inter-State and intra-State movement of persons and goods including those for cross land-border trade under Treaties with neighbouring countries. No separate permission/approval/e-permit will be required for such movements.”
These sentences are immediately preceded by this point: “States/UTs [Union Territories], based on their assessment of the situation, may prohibit certain activities outside the Containment Zones, or impose such restrictions as may be deemed necessary.”
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On Wednesday night, on social media, the reference to the “revocation of requirement” for the e-passes was discussed and it had even provided a “sense of relief” to some.
However, as far as the Tamil Nadu government is concerned, people need to take e-passes for movement and the paragraph in question has not made any difference to the situation.
Pointing out that the same points were there even in the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry on Unlock 2 on June 29, the Chief Secretary, said the States “do impose restrictions.”
Another official explained that the States are permitted to make the lockdown conditions more severe than what has been allowed by the Centre but not relax them beyond the Union government’s stipulations.