Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri on Sunday urged the State government to provide transport facilities for cancer and dialysis patients to enable them to continue treatment during the period of the COVID-19 lockdown.

In a statement, he said the Tamil Nadu government should enable availability of Ola and Uber cabs, citing that States like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have made such arrangements to attend to emergency medical needs.

Mr. Alagiri pointed out that V. Shanta, Chairperson Adyar Cancer Institute had made a request to ensure that treatment of cancer patients is not affected and alleged that the State government has not taken any steps.

The Health Department officials had announced 108 ambulance service can be used, but in reality the patients are not able to avail of it and they are suffering from non-availability of transport, he said.