By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Taking note of the spike in Covid cases, the Election Commission has written to chief secretaries of five poll-bound states to accelerate vaccination against the coronavirus.
Soon after assessing the pandemic situation in the five states, the EC has asked them to step up the inoculation drive and to ensure that the personnel to be deployed on election duty are “double vaccinated”.
In a recent letter to the chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab, the EC has also reminded the states that polling personnel come under the category of frontline workers and are eligible for the “precaution dose” of the Covid vaccines, sources said.
The sources further said the poll panel expressed concerns over the low percentage of first-dose vaccination in Manipur which is also slated to go to the polls this year.
The commission has said the polling personnel to be deployed in these states should be fully vaccinated and those eligible for the second dose of the vaccines should be administered the jabs on a priority basis, the sources said.
The panel is set to announce the poll schedule for five states in the next few days. Sources said it would strictly apply the Covid protocol and might put curbs on timing of poll rallies.
While the tenure of the UP Assembly ends in May, the terms of Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Punjab Houses end on different dates in March.
Earlier, the Centre had said the personnel to be deployed on election duty in the poll-bound states would be included in the category of frontline workers.
“As a matter of abundant precaution, for those healthcare workers and frontline workers who have received two doses, another dose would be provided from January 10, 2022. The prioritisation and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of nine months or 39 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose,” said a health ministry letter.
The Election Commission had assessed the Covid situation in the country in a meeting with the health ministry officials on December 27.
A letter was written by a lawyer to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India on Monday, urging him to defer the upcoming Assembly elections in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand till the threat posed by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is over.
Senior advocate Adish C Aggarwala claimed that the second wave of COVID-19 was the worst tragedy witnessed by India since the partition and that it became severe also due to the negligence committed by the people of the country during the elections held in four states — Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — and in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
“Now, five other states are going to have Assembly elections as per the schedule, without considering that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is gaining peak and health emergencies have been imposed in many Indian states and various other countries,” the letter read.
Aggarwala alleged that the Election Commission has taken the decision to go ahead with the elections in the interest of the political parties and not the public.
“Article 21 of the Constitution of India mandates right to life and no constitutional authority shall violate this most valuable right. The aspirations of political parties to hold elections on time cannot and should not be greater and valuable than the right to life,” he wrote in the letter to the CEC.
The lawyer said while in many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand, a night curfew has been clamped and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour is being stressed upon, a large number of people are gathering at election rallies without following the Covid protocols.
“Please take note that if the elections in these states are not postponed till Omicron COVID-19 is over, then again lakhs of people will die in India despite best efforts of the central government and the state governments, similar to what happened during the second wave of COVID-19.
“Keeping in view all the circumstances, it is humbly requested to defer the upcoming elections in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand till Omicron COVID-19 is over,” the letter read.
(With PTI Inputs)
