Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has, on Saturday, written to the Chief Secretaries of all the states and Union Territories and instructed them to lift the existing ban and restrictions in their respective territories on the movements of people and goods as per the guidelines issued by the Central government in unlocking the lockdown to gradually pull out the nation from the unprecedented experiment to curb the spread of the COVID-19 viral infection. 

In his remarks to the Chief Secretaries, the Union Home Secretary said that there have been reports that various state governments and district administrations have imposed restrictions on the movement of people and goods. The Home Secretary pressed to the states that there should be no restrictions on inter and intra-state movements of people and goods. 

His letter said that any such restrictions imposed against the Center's guidelines would account for a violation of guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry during the phases of unlocking the lockdown. Ajay Bhalla stated that the local-level restrictions on inter and intra-state movement of people and goods have been impacting supply chains nationwide causing a disruption of economic activity and causing unemployment. 

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla's letter to all Chief Secys says that local level restrictions on inter and intra- state movement of persons & goods are impacting supply chains resulting in a disruption in economic activity & employment https://t.co/1uCu2N3Ft0

— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2020

By highlighting the guidelines of the third phase of Unlock that was proposed on August 1,  the Home Secretary stated that the guidelines clearly stated that there shall be no restrictions on the inter-state and intra-state movement of people and goods and he also said that there should be no requirement of separate permission, approval or e-permit from the state governments for movement of people and goods as per the guidelines of the Home Ministry. 

By citing that such restrictions would violate the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry under provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005, the Home Secretary has requested the state governments to lift the restrictions imposed in its territories in the wake of the pandemic and called the governments to ensure to follow the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry.  

On August 1, the Union Home Ministry had rolled out the third phase of the Unlock in which it has eased the transportation by removing the restrictions and mandatory requirement of the approval, e-pass, and e-permit from the state governments for traveling between and within the states. However, some of the states including Tamil Nadu had imposed the restrictions and mandated people to obtain the e-pass for travel with the view limiting the movements of people by permitting only essential and emergency services owing to the spread of the outbreak.

Recently, the Tamil Nadu government had said it would provide e-pass for all applicants who apply, but it refrained from removing the requirement of e-pass. As the Union Home Secretary advised to remove the requirements of e-pass for travel, the Tamil Nadu government would likely be removing the restrictions as per the Center's guidelines. 

The communication from the Union Home Secretary has come amid the surge in the COVID-19 cases. In the last 24 hours till Saturday morning 8 am, India has reported 69,878 fresh cases, 63,631 discharges, and 945 fresh deaths whereas the country has reported 29,75,701 cases so far as of Saturday of which 55,794 had succumbed to the viral infection.