The Tamil Nadu government is mulling certain amendments to the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act to make flouting of COVID-19 prevention guidelines a compoundable offence.
The amendments are right now at the “drawing-board” stage, and the State might take the ordinance route to implement it at the earliest once the provisions are finalised.
The State has had to make a decision to bring in the amendments, owing to some sections of the public, establishments and shops not following rules on compulsory wearing of masks, maintenance of physical distancing norms and other guidelines on COVID-19 prevention, putting others significantly at risk.
“While we have excellent cooperation from the public, we still have people who create a problem,” Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said.
He added, “The idea is not to punish somebody, but to sensitise people that because of them flouting the norms, many people are being put at risk”.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said the government is looking at making this a compoundable offence and penalising people immediately. “The idea is to empower the public health staff, Corporation staff, the police or anyone else authorised by the government to penalise those flouting the norms,” he said.
He said wherever the number of cases came down due to systematic fever surveillance, aggressive testing or holding of fever camps, public cooperation played a big role. In places like Kannagi Nagar, Ezhil Nagar and Thideer Nagar the compliance to the guidelines was very high after an initial casual approach, he said.
“We are now finding that quite a number of people are not wearing masks properly and are flouting physical distancing norms. Even shops, establishments and banks are not following distancing norms. We are therefore making amendments to the Public Health Act and changes to the rules to cover issues of people flouting quarantine norms and not cooperating with other rules, among others,” he added.
