Schools for Classes IX-XII, colleges, and polytechnics will reopen in Tamil Nadu on September 1 as planned, while beaches will be closed on Sundays and no public display of religious festivities, including for Vinayaka Chaturthi, will be allowed, the government said on Monday.
Ahead of the reopening of schools and colleges, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin held a meeting with top officials to take stock of the COVID-19 situation.
The government also mandated that because of the situation prevailing in Kerala, college students coming from that State must be vaccinated and produce an RT-PCR test certificate.
Hostels for school and college students and working men and women hostels can function in compliance with the COVID-19 protocol. Hostel workers must be vaccinated, and schools and colleges must ensure it.
Mr. Stalin requested parents and teachers to ensure that students wore masks, maintained physical distancing, and followed public health guidelines.
Taking cognisance of the massive crowds seen on the beaches last weekend, the government announced that beaches would be closed on all Sundays from September 5. All places of worship would remained closed from Fridays to Sundays, as announced earlier, and the ban on public celebration of religious festivals would continue.
The government announced a ban on the public celebration of Vinayaka Chaturthi. It banned installation of Vinayaka idols at public places, processions and immersion of the idols in beaches and waterbodies.
The government requested people to celebrate the festival at home. Individuals alone would be allowed to go and immerse the idols at nearby waterbodies. Organisations are banned from idol immersion. In Chennai, the government banned idol immersion in beaches, including the stretch between Napier Bridge and Santhome.
Individuals celebrating the festival at home will be allowed to place the idols outside temples or in areas around them. The Department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment would take steps to collect the idols later. The government also announced a ban on congregations in Chennai, Velankani and other places for the celebration of the feast of Mother Mary.
Free bus travel
The Department of Transport has allowed free bus travel for students until when the free passes was issued for the 2021-22 academic year. In a release, Transport Minister R.S. Rajakannappan said students would be permitted to travel free in buses of all State Transport Undertakings by producing the school identity cards. Students wearing school uniform would also be allowed free travel. He said the students of government colleges, polytechnics and industrial training institutes would be allowed free travel on production of their identity cards.
