Now, weddings dropped from emergency event category for inter-district travel in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has dropped weddings from the emergency event category as the new inter-district travel restrictions came into force on Monday to contain COVID-19.

The site to register for inter-district travel (https://eregister.tnega.org) allows only three options for this using private vehicles. They are medical emergencies, elderly care and death and funeral rituals. The site mandates submission of documents in proof for the above reasons.

However, those who want to travel to other districts to attend weddings or for other non-emergency purposes can still do so via trains or flights.

A senior state government official said, “Those travelling for marriages or any other non-emergency purpose now have to choose either train or flight. While booking the tickets, travellers have to furnish their details, thus separate registration in the government portal is not needed."

Last year when the government imposed similar inter-district travel restrictions, weddings were categorised as an ‘emergency event’ and people were allowed to travel using e-pass. The fresh curbs for attending weddings are imposed after reports that weddings resulted in family clusters in many districts. However, there are no restrictions for the general public for travelling within districts to attend weddings.

There is also no provision for e-registration for daily wage labourers working in fruit and vegetable markets which are allowed to function till 10 am. S Sathish Kumar, a resident of Chengalpattu who is a supervisor at Koyambedu market, said he had no option to register for the trip. “I have to travel to and fro Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur and other places for ferrying fruits, but there was no option to register."

However, the government has enabled provision for e-registration for continuous process industries and those manufacturing essential commodities which had been exempted from the lockdown. The companies are allowed to register for employee vehicles under the category of MSME and large scale industry.

Similarly, suburban trains which receive travellers from Vellore, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts are also exempted from e-registration. “Suburban tickets are given only to government staff who are engaged in essential services. As the general public are not allowed to travel by suburban specials, travellers from Chengalpattu, Arakkonam and Kancheepuram do not require
e-registration,” explained the official.