TN govt defends policy on regulating COVID-19 relief by NGOs, individuals

Chennai, Apr 15 () Defending in the Madras High Courtits order regulating private relief efforts during coronaviruslockdown, the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday said there"is a significant risk of community spread" if NGOs, groupsand others take up such activities on their own.

In a counter to the petition filed by the DMK challengingits directive for routing relief works through the districtadministration, the government dubbed as "utterly falseallegation" the claim that it has barred NGOs and others fromreaching out to the needy people and it has only said .

There would be potential risk even if one COVID-19 personslips into the crowd that may throng to receive reliefmaterials distributed without regulations as per the healthdepartment norms for social distancing and others, it said.

The DMK has sought to quash a communique of theDepartment of Public Relations, restraining political parties,charitable organisations and NGOs from distributing essentialitems like groceries and vegetables during the lockdown perioddirectly without the involvement of state machinery. When the matter came up for hearing before a bench ofJustices R.Subbiah and R.Pongiappan, the opposition party saidit was against the government's decision as the Prime Ministerhimself in his speech had made a request to help the poor andthe needy. Advocate General Vijay Narayan, who appeared for thegovernment, submitted that the present situation was entirelydifferent and the entire world faced a grave danger fromcornavirus. The government counter detailed the steps taken and theseriousness of the pandemic and the directions given by theunion government to contain it. "At this time, the situation and the efforts should not belooked at from a narrow prism by attributing or insinuatingpolitical reason to a well reasoned public health-baseddecision and make an utterly false allegation that the stategovernment has stayed the acceptance or distribution ofNGO/CSO/private individual's effort, it said.

The government clarified that there was no such stay orban on service organisations or private individuals indistributing relief. Only the procedure of distribution of such relief hasbeen modified to ensure that the Public Health directivesbased on the protocols evolved by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) and public health experts of the Centraland state governments, are followed. It was further submitted that so far 2,500 organisationsand 58,000 volunteers have registered themselves online anddirectly contacting the district administration and theservices of them are utilised by the government. The bench said it would pass final orders on Thursday. COR NVGVS VS