ON May 19, 2021, the Bombay High Court asked the Mumbai civic body if it was possible to execute a door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination programme for senior citizens and persons with disabilities who were unable to visit vaccination centres.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni said if the BMC was willing to start door-to-door vaccination for these groups, the Court would grant it permission even though the Union government had not given the nod for such a drive.
The bench said that it seemed that the Union government was not keen on starting such a vaccination programme. “Will you come to the help of elderly citizens? Even though the Centre is not giving green signal (for door-to-door vaccination) we are willing to give you (BMC) green signal,” Chief Justice Datta said. “Will the BMC be able to go to the house of those persons, who cannot step out of their houses, and vaccinate them?” the Court asked.
The Court had earlier asked the Union government to take a relook at its policy that said doorstep vaccination was not possible due to various reasons such as wastage of vaccines and nonavailability of observation centres for beneficiaries.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Union government, told the Court that an expert committee had been set up to look into the issue. The committee had a meeting on May 18 and submitted a few suggestions like transporting people who are unable to move out of their houses on stretchers to vaccine centres, Singh said. He added that a standard operating procedure (SoP) would be issued by the government on the issue.
This story is from the June 7, 2021 edition of India Legal.
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This story is from the June 7, 2021 edition of India Legal.
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