Some state govts conducting door-to-door vaccination, can't include in national policy: Centre tells Bombay HC

The Union government on Monday told the Bombay High Court that its national guidelines do not at present allow a doortodoor drive to vaccinate people against Covid19The Union governments counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh said some state governments and municipal bodies had decided to ignore its advisory guidelines and were conducting doortodoor vaccination for special categories of citizens but it was not possible yet to make such drives a part of the national policyASG Singh was responding to a previous query posed by a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni on what the Centre thought about the BMCs request seeking its permission to conduct doortodoor vaccination for the elderly bedridden or such category of citizensOn the BMCs permission letter to Union ministry of health and family welfare the ministry says its current advisory against such drives has been formulated based on recommendations of experts ASG Singh saidAlso Read Doortodoor vaccination not possible will start neartodoor system Centre tells Bombay HCSome states and municipal bodies have been carrying out doortodoor vaccination but from the national angle the national policy should be followed We request the court to bear with us for sometime For the time being it is not practical or possible he saidThe ASG said the Centre however kept improvising and updating its policy from time to time and perhaps sometime in future it might permit doortodoor vaccination drivesASG Singh said since the Union governments policy was merely advisory in nature it had not asked states such as Kerala Odisha Jharkhand which were conducting such drives to roll them backThe HC then pointed out that in case Maharashtra which has already expressed its desire to conduct doortodoor vaccination drives for the bedridden decides to go ahead with it then the state would stand on the same footing as the states mentioned aboveThe bench also asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC if it would follow the Centre or the states guidelines in case Maharashtra began a doortodoor driveWe will follow the states guidelines The state is thinking about the drive but issues like lack of manpower since three persons will be needed to visit each person getting vaccinated requirement of ambulance and ensuring no wastage of vaccine have to be be considered BMC counsel Anil Sakhre saidThe states counsel Gita Shastri told HC that while news reports had quoted state health minister Rajesh Tope expressing a willingness to begin doortodoor vaccination drives for the bedridden and for formulating a separate protocol for the same she was yet to take instructions as to when a final decision would be takenThe court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by lawyer Dhruti Kapadia seeking doortodoor vaccination drive for citizens above 75 years of age and for those who were speciallyabled or bedriddenHC said it will pass detailed directions on the same later this evening It will hear the plea further on June 22This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever