With the view of tightening the regulations and protocols being issued to curb the COVID-19 spread and to ensure that people are adhering to the regulations, the Tamil Nadu government is shaping new legislation in this regard to penalize people who defy the lockdown rules by not wearing masks at public places and observing social distancing norms in the events and the workplaces. 

According to the reports, the fresh ordinance, which would be under the bounds of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, would be making offenses compoundable and people who defy the lockdown norms would end up paying penalty, which will be higher than what has been listed in the existing Tamil Nadu Public Health Act 1939. 

The legislation, if enacted, would pour more power to the public health authorities and officials to prescribe the offenses that currently are not under the ambit of the existing legislation, which rolled out the current protocols and guidelines. The reports say that the fresh legislation would list out the types of COVID-19 lockdown violations in an event or at the workspace and would carry the warrants to take action against such violations. 

Though authorities didn't specifically put out the penalties for the violations prescribed in the new legislation, it has been reported that the legislation would remove the existing norms. According to the public health official, through the new legislation, the government aims to make people refrain from defying the government's guidelines and regulations in containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The government's move of proposing the legislation has come when it has been speculated that the government would consent to the resumption of some of the major industries like sports, entertainment, hospitality, and recreational centers in September with the state is five days ahead of closing the current phase of the lockdown which banned these sectors while allowing gradual relaxations in the transportations and movements of people. 

The public health experts and the state government have been reiterating the appeal to people to get involved in containing the spread of the pandemic. Addressing an English news media, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said that the spread can't be contained unless there is community involvement and there have been violations of the government's guidelines in Chennai due to which the city has been reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases.  

According to the reports, the proposal of the legislation is currently with the state law department and it will be sent to the Governor's office in a few days following his authorization, it would become a law to curb the violators. As of Tuesday - August 25, Tamil Nadu has reported 3,91,303 cases so far of which 52,128 are active, 3,32,454 have been discharged, and 6,721 had succumbed to the viral infection.