Taking cognisance of the fact that adequate protective gear were provided to sanitary workers in corporations under the jurisdiction of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, the court on Friday directed the State government to extend the same to sanitary workers in municipalities and panchayats.

A Division Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and B. Pugalendhi observed that a monitoring mechanism similar to the one implemented by the corporations should be in place to ensure that sanitary workers in municipalities and panchayats used protective gear during work. Compliance must be ensured, the court said.

In the case of police personnel, Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian said that over 54,000 police personnel were provided face shields along with other protective gear. They were engaged in sensitive areas like check-posts and market areas.

The same would be provided to other policemen, the court was informed.

Taking into account the submissions made, the court directed the State government to provide adequate protective gear to police personnel across all cadre and ensure that they wore the shields while on duty. Photographs of the protective gear were submitted to the court.

The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigation petitions.

The petitioners had sought a direction to the State government to ensure that non-medical frontline staff like police personnel and sanitary workers were also provided personal protective equipment, like health workers, in view of the spread of COVID-19.

With the directions, the petitions were closed.