Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das has written a letter to Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MH&FW), seeking his guidance in achieving the twin objectives of COVID-19 vaccination and conduct of local body elections in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement on Gram Panchayat (GP) elections.
Mr. Aditya Nath Das stated that the government started vaccination of 3.80 lakh frontline workers, of whom 1.49 lakh have been vaccinated so far. The vaccine is to be administered to another seven lakh frontline workers of the Revenue, Police and Municipal Administration Departments.
Meanwhile, the State Election Commission announced elections to GPs, for which nearly five lakh staff, including personnel of Police, Panchayat Raj, Revenue and Education Departments, have to be deployed at around 1.35 lakh polling stations.
The same frontline workers would be sent to multiple locations on election duty. Due to the logistical problem involved in this massive deployment of manpower and their movement during the polls, the vaccination program would be disturbed.
Those given the first dose of the vaccine might not be available at the same location for the second dose. Apart from this, Mr. Das said, AEFI (Adverse Effects Following Immunization) protocols were to be implemented, for which the people who took the vaccine have to be closely monitored. Recipients of the vaccine should avoid stress.
In spite of all these issues, both GP elections and vaccination have to be undertaken as per the orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court. The Centre (MH&FW) should therefore guide the State on the road ahead to achieving the said objectives, the Chief Secretary requested.
