Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said that the e-pass system will continue to be in place in the state. He was speaking in Madurai on Friday, where he inaugurated a few schemes and conducted review meetings on the COVID-19 situation. Speaking to the media, he said that he has ordered one more team at the district level, in addition to one team deployed already, to take care of the e-pass applications. He added that this will effectively double the number of e-passes that are being issued to applicants.

“The restrictions are in place to discourage non-essential movements. Only because of these restrictions, the number of [COVID-19] cases in Madurai district have gradually decreased. Everybody has started moving around and there is nothing wrong in travelling for necessary events,” he said.

He added that such restrictions have been implemented to prevent the spread of the disease, thus indicating that the prevailing system will continue to be in place. 

Over the past few months, there have been several reports in the media that highlighted the difficulties suffered by the people to obtain e-passes. Over the last week, a few Tamil news channels also alleged corruption in the e-pass system, wherein agents assured e-pass approval for people in exchange for money.  

Leader of the opposition in Tamil Nadu and DMK President MK Stalin called for the e-pass system to be cancelled. In a tweet, he referred to the news reports on the corruption around e-passes in Tamil Nadu and said that the opacity in the e-pass system paves way for corruption.

“People are struggling with rejections of e-pass applications even for emergencies like weddings and deaths. The system has failed completely and hence is not necessary anymore and needs to be cancelled,” the tweet said in Tamil.