'Aadhar for haircut': Tamil Nadu issues new rules for salons, beauty parlours

Tamil Nadu government has made it mandatory for customers visiting spas, beauty parlours and salons to carry their Aadhaar cards from Tuesday. The move seems to be aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus and help tracking the infection.

Chennai: Salons in Chennai will now check Aadhar card of their customers, before providing them services, as Tamil Nadu government has mandated salon owners to maintain a register of customers, including their Aadhar number from Tuesday.

The new rules from the state government, aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 and facilitate contact tracing, has made it mandatory for salon owners to maintain record of name, address, Aadhaar and mobile phone numbers of the customers, before providing them services.

While saloons and beauty parlours were allowed to operate in all other parts of the state from May 24, the government permitted them in Chennai police limits from Monday, when the "Unlock 1" phase began.

Principal Secretary Revenue Administration and Disaster Management Commissioner J Radhakrishnan has instructed the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and all district collectors to direct the establishments to keep a record of all their customers and take other appropriate steps to contain the spread of the virus.

The other conditions mentioned in the seven-page Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) issued by the government for salons are:

• Establishments need to ensure facilities for hand washing with soap or provide hand sanitiser to the customers and employees.
• Employees should wear hand gloves and face masks and must wash their hands before attending to customers.
• Blades should not be reused and napkins given to customers should be disposed of safely.
• Headbands and towels one used for a customer should not be reused before washing.
• Owners should not allow employees having cold, cough or fever symptoms from working and ask them to approach a doctor immediately.
• Only 50 % of the seats should be occupied at a time and markings for queues were necessary to avoid crowding.

However, the order did not mention the steps to be taken, if any customer reaches a saloon without Aadhar number or refuses to share the number.

With inputs from PTI