Chennai:  The Tamil Nadu government has issued an order on attires that the staff should wear to office. The order states that the state government employees must avoid casual outfits and instead wear clothes that are reflective of Indian and Tamil culture.

The government stated that the order has come at a time when employees were found coming to office wearing “fashionable” clothes and not “formal” attire.

Through a Government Order (GO) dated May 28, 2019, the government had amended the “Tamil Nadu Secretariat Office Manual,” mandating the dress code.

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The revised GO was issued on Saturday (June 1) by chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan. It read, “Government servants are required to wear neat, clean, formal attire that is appropriate to the workplace setting, so as to maintain the decorum of the office. While on duty, dresses like saree or salwar kameez or churidar with dupatta in the case of female government servants and shirts with formal pants or veshti (dhoti) reflecting Tamil culture or any Indian traditional dress, in the case of male government servants, must be worn. Casual attire shall be avoided.”

The last week has seen a flurry of GOs as the first GO that was issued on May 28 was actually an amendment of the earlier Secretariat office manual.

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The first GO said that women should wear neat, clean, formal attire like saree or salwar kameez or a churidar with dupatta of “sober colour”, while men should don shirts with formal pants. The second order was issued on June 1 and it added ‘veshti’ to the men’s list, “reflecting Tamil culture”.

The order has also mentioned diktats for government servants who attend courts. It read that the officials who appear before a court or a tribunal or any other judicial body, are to wear a full-sleeved short buttoned-up coat and trousers. A female officer, on the other hand, are expected to wear a saree or salwar kameez with dupatta, of a sober colour.