From transport to PDS, govt agencies abandon social distancing guidelines

Chennai

Lockdown rules issued under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 came into force after the State government announced complete shutdown on March 24. Social distancing, compulsory face masks and using sanitisers were some of the rules. However, except in Chennai, the rules were seldom followed, with most of the violations done by government agencies themselves.

Most common of the violation is crowding in public transport. While government buses were allowed to operate with not more than 50 per cent occupancy. But in most cases, there are so many passengers that many are seen standing. Activists added that decision to operate government buses was one of the major reasons for spike in cases in other districts.

"We cannot expect people to follow social distancing on government buses. Moreover, we are not sure whether buses are properly sanitised," said A Shankar, Executive Director, Empower, an NGO based in Thoothukudi. Shankar shot off a letter to the government claiming that government buses were one of the primary reasons for the spread because tickets conductors have the habit of wetting their fingers using saliva to sort tickets while issuing them.

The same opinion was expressed by the medical experts’ team, who said public transport had contributed significantly in the rise in number of COVID-19 cases and urged the government to tighten the operation. Following this, public transport was suspended for 15 days from July 1 to July 15. Another area of concern is the distribution of Rs 1,000 to all rice ration cardholders in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu, and Madurai, where complete lockdown was announced from June 19 to June 30 and later extended to July 5.

Though the government said the dole would be delivered at the doorsteps, many ration shop employees forced the public to come to shops. When this was highlighted by the media, higher officials issued stringent warning that action would be taken if the money was not distributed at the doorsteps. Similarly, social distancing is not followed in government camps where welfare measures such as free rice and other essentials are distributed. Though police personnel are deployed to regulate the crowd, they fail in ensuring that in most cases, resulting in people rushing in to get materials.

When asked about this, Revenue Minister RB Udhayakumar denied such violations were happening, claiming that social distancing norms were strictly followed by the government agencies and that spread of COVID-19 was under control. "Death rate is low due to the stringent protective measures taken by the State government," the Minister added.