COVID-19 cases: Tamil Nadu's decision on e-pass creates problems for Keralites

Chennai, Mar 11: In a recent development, the Tamil Nadu government's decision to make the e-pass mandatory for those entering from Kerala has caused difficulties to many passengers. According to reports, the border towns of Coimbatore and Nagercoil recorded people travelling to Tamil Nadu being stopped and not allowed to enter until the e-pass registration was made.

Earlier, the Tamil Nadu government took a decision to make e-pass mandatory for those travelling to the state from Kerala from March 10 following the surge in the novel coronavirus cases in Kerala.

However, many were unaware of the decision and the police detained them at the borders, which led to serpentine queues.

Speaking to reporters, KM Babu, a businessman, who commutes to Coimbatore from Palakkad said, "I was not aware of the decision even though the TN government had announced it, I had to wait for long to register for e-pass as the mobile connectivity was poor at the Walayar borders. Both the governments should have made some other arrangements as this is creating problems for people like us, who are not in a position to register under e-pass mainly owing to lack of awareness and technical handicaps".

College students, who daily travel from Parasuvakkal and Parasala at the borders of Thiruvananthapuram to Nagerocoil where several engineering and other colleges are situated, were also faced with the situation of waiting in the queues for long.

However, goods vehicles were not stopped on Wednesday but will have to mandatorily register and its crew will not be given any leniency in the days to come.

People travelling to Bengaluru, who have to cross the Tamil Nadu border towns were also subjected to checking and after registration for e-pass were allowed to move further.