E-registration for travelling causes traffic chaos on Chennai roads

Chennai: Anna Salai, the main arterial road in Chennai, witnessed traffic jams and chaos on Tuesday as police were stopping motorists to check if they had e-registration, which has been made mandatory for travel by the Chennai Police during the ongoing lockdown

Chennai: Anna Salai, the main arterial road in Chennai, witnessed traffic jams and chaos on Tuesday as police were stopping motorists to check if they had e-registration, which has been made mandatory for travel by the Chennai Police during the ongoing lockdown. The Tamil Nadu government has also made e-registration mandatory for inter and intra district travel as well as for those entering the state during the lockdown, which is in force amid rising Covid-19 cases.

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In an attempt to intensify the implementation of the lockdown, the Greater Chennai Police issued a notice late Monday night making e-registrations (auto generated) mandatory for people to commute from one sector of a police station limit to another between 6 am and 10 am when people are allowed to step out to buy essentials.

Each police station has been divided into three sectors, with a total of 348 sectors being demarcated for Chennai. Barricades were put up on roads to demarcate sectors, said police. While people can move around to buy essentials within their own sector, they require an e-registration to enter another sector. According to police, 153 vehicle checks were established to connect all important junctions and cover all police limits.

“There were at least a thousand vehicles, and many weren’t aware about the e-registration,” an essential service worker, who didn’t wish to be named, said, adding, “We don’t know why so many are on the road and where they’re going but before the rule came into effect some notice time should have been given.”

Shankar Jiwal, commissioner of police, Chennai, said the rationale behind rolling out the new rule was to prevent people using the 6-10 am window as a loophole to commute to faraway places defeating the purpose of a lockdown. He, however, admitted that the order came in late. “After studying which area is self-sufficient where all services of purchasing essentials like vegetables, groceries, and meat are available, we divided a police station into two or three (sectors),” Jiwal said.

“In the last three days, we studied about 20 junctions for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening to ascertain the purpose of people’s commute. Under the pretext of buying essentials, people were going to faraway places. This is causing a lot of movement. The infection spreads because they communicate and mingle with people in one area and bring it back to their communities. Our cases aren’t going down. So we segregated these areas. We advise people to purchase within their own areas,” Jiwal said, adding that the traffic seen on Tuesday will slowly come down as people will realise the importance of not commuting without purpose. “Since there is crowding in a place that has more sectors, we are going to make traffic two-lanes. One will be for ambulances and essential service providers while the other will be for people with valid e-registrations. Defaulters will be sent back. If people unnecessarily loiter, we will also seise vehicles,” the commissioner said.

While ambulances are exempted from any restrictions, Jiwal said, food delivery executives, state and central government staff, bank employees will not be restricted to their police-marked sectors. “Those who are exempted in the government order can move anywhere with their ID cards,” he said. “E-registration is only for three categories: death-related, medical emergencies, elderly care. For instance, if one has to commute to take care of their kin in the hospital in another locality, they have to apply for e-registration.” E-commerce like Swiggy, Zomanto, Dunzo are registered under the industry category. Media requires an accredited DIPR card to be allowed.

Tamil Nadu will remain under lockdown till May 24 amid a Covid-19 surge across the state. On Tuesday, the state reported 33,059 new infections, taking the active caseload to 242,929. Chennai accounted for 6,016 new cases, which pushed its active caseload to 48,455.

A total of 364 and 85 fatalities were reported in Tamil Nadu and Chennai, taking the toll to 18,369 and 5,939, respectively, according to the state health department.