Amid a raging controversy between Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and State Election Commissioner Ramesh Kumar, the Andhra Pradesh government has said that it cannot vaccinate frontline workers because of the scheduled elections to the gram panchayats. The state government on Monday night wrote to the Union government ‘seeking guidance’ on the road ahead to achieve the twin objectives of COVID-19 vaccination and conduct of elections.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary (CS) Aditya Nath Das wrote to Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to this effect. "The State Election Commission has announced elections to the gram panchayats and the election process has started.There are approximately 1.35 lakh polling stations and around five lakh staff will be deployed for election duty, which includes police, panchayat raj, revenue and education departments, who comprise frontline workers," the CS wrote in the letter.
The same frontline workers would be deployed to different polling stations in multiple locations, he pointed out, adding that the issue was more acute in the case of police personnel, who were only 73,188 in number, but had to be deployed to 1.35 lakh polling stations. Each police personnel would have to be deployed to three polling stations on an average on rotation, by moving them from one location to another, as some of them would also be on other duties, Das pointed out.
"Simultaneously, all the polling personnel are deployed away from their place of work and their residence. This will lead to huge logistical problems and the polling personnel will not be able to be vaccinated as they will be deployed elsewhere from the session site allocated to them," the Chief Secretary said.
He also pointed out that those given the first dose at one location would not be available at the same location for the second dose. Further, the process of vaccination requires a period of observation.
"AEFI protocol has to be followed where continuous monitoring of the vaccine recipient is mandated to minimise any untoward outcomes. It is advisable that the recipients are not put to unnecessary stress and they have to be provided an environment of low-stress and monitored closely," he noted.
“Both the vaccination and elections ought to be undertaken as per the directions of the High Court and the Supreme Court. In this backdrop, we seek your guidance on the further road ahead to achieve the twin objectives of vaccination and conduct of elections," Das wrote.
On January 9, Ramesh Kumar had announced that the local body elections in Andhra Pradesh would be conducted soon. Following this, the Jagan government challenged the move in the High Court and later also moved the Supreme Court, to defer the elections due to the ongoing vaccination drive. However, the SC ruled it out and said that elections were being conducted in several states even during the pandemic, citing the example of Kerala.