Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday made it clear that the e-pass system for inter-district and inter-State movement during the pandemic cannot be abolished.

A day after Opposition leader M.K. Stalin demanded the abolition of the system, Mr. Palaniswami told journalists in Tirunelveli that since people from other States and abroad were coming in, restriction on movement was needed to arrest the spread of COVID-19. Hence, a stricter e-pass system was being implemented.

Once the spread of the infection comes down, public transport will be resumed and the procedure to get e-passes will be simplified. Since an additional committee has been formed in every district to simplify the issuance of e-passes, those who want to move out for emergencies will get them easily, he said. Workers of private factories, after getting due permission from the District Collectors concerned, by submitting the list of the workforce, can go to their workplaces without any hurdle. Companies that have to bring their workers back from the northern States can also do so after the staff members are subjected to mandatory medical screening on entering Tamil Nadu, said.

When a journalist said the Union government had rejected the State’s proposal to cancel the final semester examinations in colleges in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, he said the government would act as per the Centre’s guidelines.

The government will induct 500 more ambulances to bring COVID-19 patients to hospitals, he said. An incentive of ₹5,000 will be given to emergency medical technicians and drivers of ‘108’ ambulances as they have been rendering yeomen service to the people during the pandemic, he added.

On the recent custodial deaths of trader Jayaraj and his son J. Benicks, he said the government had taken steps to prevent such incidents. Measures are being taken to ensure the safety of the people in the Nilgiris, that is receiving heavy downpour, he said.

To a question on Mr. Stalin’s assertion that the DMK would be voted to power in 2021, he said that the people would decide this.