Tamil Nadu will not be extending the complete lockdown that it had announced in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem and Tiruppur municipal corporations earlier last week. Chief Secretary to Government K Shanmugam in his letter to all district Collectors has said that when the complete lockdown ends on April 28, Tuesday 9.00 pm in Salem and Tiruppur and on April 29, Wednesday 9.00 pm in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore, the lockdown norms that were in place prior to the announcement of complete lockdown will continue to be in place until May 3 as announced by the Prime Minister of the country.
Tamil Nadu government announced complete lockdown, under the Disaster Management Act of 2005, in these above mentioned five municipal corporations from April 26. Under complete lockdown norms, except medical services, essential services and a few other services like delivery of food from restaurants, permission to volunteers helping the elderly and persons with disabilities and volunteer organisations catering to the needs of the poor, there was a blanket ban on every other activity.
Shops and supermarkets too were not allowed to open their doors during the said period. Movement of people was completely curbed in these areas and essentials like grocery and vegetables were made available on mobile markets.
A day before this complete lockdown came into effect, all market places across these municipal limits saw overcrowding, with people rushing to stock up on essentials.
According to reports, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, during his recent correspondence with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, remained noncommittal on the extension of lockdown and instead highlighted the state’s requirements.
Requesting the sanction of funds for procuring medical equipment for the state, the CM has also asked for “ad-hoc grant of Rs 1,000 crore from National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) immediately to procure medical and protective material.” The CM has also highlighted the needs of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the state and has written, “I request you to extend support to this sector for payment of salaries to their employees, payment of Provident Fund (PF) and Employees' State Insurance (ESI) dues on their behalf and waiver of interest on term loans and working capital loans for a period of six months. Payment of Goods and Service Tax(GST) Advance Tax and IT may be deferred for six months to help the MSMEs.”