Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 6 (IANS): For the third day in succession, the Congress-led opposition on Friday walked out of the Assembly after state Health Minister Veena George did not relent on granting any relaxation in the newly announced Covid norms.

George on Wednesday announced the new guidelines, which say that those who enter shops, banks and other establishments, should have at least one dose of vaccine administered or produce an RT-PCR certificate not older than 72 hours.

On Friday, Congress legislator K. Babu sought leave for an adjournment motion to discuss this issue and slammed the government for the most 'impractical and unscientific norms' set by the government to tackle Covid.

"There has been huge backlash to the new demand that people should take an RT-PCR test or should have taken one dose of vaccine. With the now announced relaxations, it would only help the police to take on the people and levy fines. This should not be like this. So to help the people, there should be appropriate changes," said Babu.

But George said it was the responsibility of a "responsible government to safeguard the people and that's what we are doing".

"None should forget the presence of the Delta variant which is there. We the government have to take care of the people and hence we have to abide by the apex court directive also. So in the present circumstances, we cannot give any relaxation as this has been decided by the expert committee," said George.

Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said that any government should understand the needs of the people and act accordingly, but this government is not understanding the woes of the people.

"This government is teasing the people of our state as 57.86 per cent of the population will have to undergo RT-PCR tests if they have to go out of the house and buy their needs from the shop next door. Just look into the maze of activity in social media against these impractical and illogical norms," said Satheesan and led the entire opposition out of the House.