About 70,000 to 75,000 frontline warriors in all the urban local bodies (ULBs) of the State could be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination free of cost during the first phase of vaccination.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has spelled out nine categories of municipal workers eligible for the first round of vaccination, which include sanitation workers, waste collectors, sweepers and emptiers, plant operators, frontline ULB staff, vehicle drivers, cremation ground staff, maintenance staff and miscellaneous staff.
Fitted into these categories are all personnel working in COVID care centres and isolation centres, personnel engaged in daily collection of municipal waste from households, street sweepers, storm water drain cleaners, beldars, private de-sludging operators, all solid and liquid waste processing plant operators, engineers, Revenue and other department staff working in door to door tax collection, contact tracing and penalty, protocol management such as distribution of masks, queue management at markets and public places, and frontline activities and citizen services such as births, deaths, and marriage certificate issuance, drivers of city buses owned by ULBs, conductors and water tanker operators, staff engaged in cremation grounds, all front line personnel engaged in civil, electrical, and other maintenance activities including junior engineers, water meter readers, plumbers, water supply line-men, and park ground maintenance staff.
No differentiation will be made among permanent, contract and outsourced workers.
The exhaustive list may cover about 30,000 workers from GHMC, an equal number from all other ULBs, and about 10,000 to 15,000 workers and staff from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS & SB) and other departments.
The department of Municipal Administration has begun the process of uploading the workers’ details in the CoWIN mobile app designed by the Central government for this purpose. The app is, as of now, restricted to the frontline warriors, and not available for common people.
Only a few government officials have access to the mobile app, including commissioners of 12 municipal corporations including GHMC, and two Regional Directors in the Directorate of Municipal Administration.
The details being collected include name, age, address, phone number and Aadhaar card number of the workers.
The vaccine will be given in two doses with a gap of 28 days, and alerts will be sent to the registered phone numbers about the same.
