Rs 4,000 relief to be given to transgenders too: TN govt

The Tamil Nadu government on Friday informed the Madras High Court that the state has decided to extend the COVID-19 assistance of Rs 4,000 to all transgenders, irrespective of whether they possessed the registration cards.

Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram told the first bench of the Madras High that the only reservation of the State is that while it may not insist on strict registration documents or identity proof, the grant should not be abused and some form of recording of the name and address of the beneficiary should be followed.

The bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice R Subbiah recorded this and told the AG to find out a modality by which the transgenders receive the benefit without any misuse of the same. The matter was posted to July 9. The bench was passing further interim orders on a PIL petition from Grace Banu of Thoothukudi.