DMK president M.K. Stalin on Thursday said the government should dispense with the mandate of obtaining an e-pass for travel within Tamil Nadu if it was really interested in giving the benefits of relaxations of the COVID-19 lockdown to the people.

“As the government has already announced precautionary measures for those travelling to other districts on their own, the e-pass system is unnecessary,” Mr. Stalin said in a statement.

Pointing out that e-passes would not provide any solution as the Centre had made it clear that it was not necessary, the DMK leader wondered why Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who claimed to be following the Centre’s guidelines, had not withdrawn the system.

“The government has permitted companies to resume work, but keep the workers inside their houses. Is making e-pass compulsory to travel between districts a good COVID-19 management protocol,” he asked.

Mr. Stalin said that people were raising the same question and the artificial ban on people’s movement in the name of e-passes had caused them a lot of difficulties.

Alleging irregularities and corruption in the issuance of e-passes, Mr. Stalin said the government had failed to pay attention to these issues, even though the media had extensively reported on itcorruption behind issuing e-pass. “Do not allow irregularities and corruption,” he said.