Two months on, face masks distribution yet to take off in State

Executive Director of EMPOWER

CHENNAI: More than two months after the State government had announced free distribution of face masks to all ration card holders, the scheme was yet to take off.

After the spread of the coronavirus in Tamil Nadu, the State government announced lockdown measures asking the public to stay indoors. The government had also issued a series of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for people stepping out of their homes and the most important rule was wearing face masks following which the sale of masks had also peaked. The State had also imposed fines if the public was not found wearing them.

To ensure everyone had access to good quality masks, the government had announced distribution of two reusable cloth masks to every person in a family possessing ration cards and had estimated distribution of more than 13 crore masks to 6.5 crore people. In the first phase, it had announced distribution of masks to 69 lakh people in urban local bodies.

“Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami inaugurated the scheme of distributing face masks to all ration card holders in the State on July 27. However, for the past two months the scheme has not kick started yet despite the government continuing to collect fines from the public,” Sema. Narayanan, President, Makkal Desiya Katchi, told DT Next. COVID-19 positive cases have again started to increase but the State has not yet begun distribution of masks. “What happened to the fund allotted for the masks,” questioned Narayanan.

A Sankar, Executive Director of EMPOWER, an NGO, said that this is the right time for distribution of face masks to public. “ICMR and other health experts had already predicted a second wave in November and it is the right time for distribution of face masks to the public,” said Sankar. Minister for Tamil Official Languages and Tamil Culture K Pandiarajan, who is also one of the six Ministers appointed in-charge of controlling the pandemic in Chennai Corporation, said that the authorities concerned will look into why the project was delayed and take necessary action.

ICMR and other health experts had already predicted a second wave in November and it is the right time for distribution of face masks to the public

A Sankar,