G.O.(Ms) No.203, COVID-19 Lockdown Addendum, 2020

What the notification governed

G.O.(Ms) No.203 dated 23 April 2020, issued by the Tamil Nadu Revenue and Disaster Management (DM-II) Department, added limited permissions to the COVID-19 lockdown arrangements. The lockdown continued without general relaxation until 3 May 2020, but selected activities could operate in non-containment zones under the permissions available in the revised consolidated guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs dated 15 April 2020.

The notification dealt with whether specified work could proceed during the lockdown. It did not contain provisions about land ownership, title, registration or transfer.

Activities permitted

The Tamil Nadu Revenue and Disaster Management (DM-II) Department identified the following additional activities:

• MNREGA works in rural areas, particularly irrigation and water conservation work, excluding containment zones and Red Blocks listed in Annexure I as updated by the Health and Family Welfare Department.
• Rural construction projects, including irrigation, desilting of tanks and channels, ongoing dam safety work, buildings, medical colleges and hospitals, roads, bridges, water supply and sanitation.
• Brick kilns, hardware material supply on a call basis, and electricity generation, transmission and distribution work.
• State and Central Government offices maintaining essential services, with attendance not exceeding 33 percent of total staff.

Conditions and safeguards

G.O.(Ms) No.203 imposed additional controls on the permitted activities:

• MNREGA workers had to be provided with masks.
• No more than one third of the required MNREGA labour force could be mobilised.
• Strict social distancing guidelines had to be followed.
• Before allowing the selected activities, district administrations had to ensure that preparatory arrangements were in place for standard operating procedures on social distancing in offices, workplaces, factories and establishments, along with other sector-specific requirements.

Relevance to land and property work

G.O.(Ms) No.203 may have affected whether rural construction, irrigation, tank and channel desilting, road, bridge, water supply, sanitation or electricity work could operate during the relevant lockdown period. Permission depended on the location being outside a containment zone and, for MNREGA work, outside the listed Red Blocks.

The annexure classified 388 blocks across 38 districts by their impact from positive COVID-19 cases. It recorded 187 blocks in the Nil category, 173 in the 1-14 category and 28 in the greater than 15 category.