Coimbatore: Various sections of people like farmers, businessmen and the commoners have requested for change in application and issuances process for E-passes.
Coimbatore: Various sections of people like farmers, businessmen and the commoners have requested for change in application and issuances process for E-passes.
The Tamilnadu CM has announced that the lockdown with certain relaxtions will be continued until August 31 and that a complete lockdown will be in place on all Sundays in August.
Coimbatore, known as the Manchester of South India has more than 30,000 gold workshops, around 1.5 lakh MSMEs, more than 10,000 textile businesses, more than 50,000 wet grinder/manufacturing units, and units that produce spare parts for two and four wheelers. More than 10 lakh workers are employed in these industries.
Ever since the lockdown came into place on March 24, labourers, farmers, medical workers, people travelling for businesses and many other sections of the society have been greatly affected due difficulties in applying for and procuring E-passes. With another month of relaxed lockdown in place, Coimbatore District Administrations has announced that the existing format in place for obtaining E-passes will continue as it is. This announcement has disappointed farmers, industry owners and the commoner alike.
Farmers
"Procedure for the issue of E-pass must be simplified."
There are more than 1.5 lakh farmers and one lakh employees directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture in the district. Agriculture happens on over 60,000 acres of land. Workers from Tirupur and Erode district are brought to Coimbatore for agricultural work. Speaking about this, the district president of Tamilnadu Farmers Association S. Palanisamy said, "Most of the daily wage agricultural labourers are from neighbouring districts.
Due to the lockdown there is great difficulty in bringing these labourers for harvesting agricultural produce as they are being refused E-passes. Therefore, the procedure must be simplified, failing which the danger of agricultural produce going to waste is high."
Industries
"E-pass procedures should be relaxed to continue industry-related work seamlessly."
Coordinator of TACT James said, "Permission must be granted for operation of buses and trains to bring back migrant labourers from other states and districts. It has not been possible for industries to arrange for private buses to bring back the migrant workers.
If the need to obtain an E-pass continues, then the industries must be permitted to obtain E-pass without difficulty, thereby helping the industry-related work to take place without any obstacles. To rejuvenate the MSMEs and to help them revive from the economic crisis, the issue of E-pass must be simplified."
Commoners
A majority of job opportunities have gone down due to the lockdown. Many have been struggling to travel to other districts and states for employment, to meet relatives and to meet their economic needs. E-pass restrictions must be enforced only when people need to travel to isolation zones where the impact of COVID-19 is higher. The common man feels that people must be allowed to travel to other places.
Newton employed at a private company said, "The livelihood of people has been affected entirely due to the lockdown. People are not able to travel even for their livelihood. If changes to the E-pass procedure are not made by the government, it will lead to a lot of mental issues. The politically influential and the well-to-do obtain E-passes easily, but to a common man E-passe is not granted that easily."
Detailing the difficulty in obtaining an E-pass, another member of the public said, "We are currently experiencing an unprecedented crisis. The government is making plans to control the spread of the disease which is highly contagious and we appreciate that.
However, people have been experiecing a great great deal of stress because they have been incapacitated without being able to travel in order to earn for livelihood or meet their loved ones. They have not been able to attend the last rites of even close relatives causing them insufferable mental stress.
This system must be changed and people must be permitted to travel to other districts, while the use of face masks and social distancing must be mandated. Recommendations must be made to the government to permit the travel of people to places other than the isolation zones."
Speaking about this, an official with the District Administration said, "We permit only those who have E-passes. It is applicable to all districts. Nearly 40,000 people request for entry into Coimbatore each month. They are provided with E-passes as per the government guidelines. There is no change in the guidelines for provision of E-passes in Coimbatore, the old procedure will continue as it is."