Will finalise policy on door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination in a week: Maharashtra govt to Bombay HC

The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that it will finalise within a week its policy on starting doortodoor Covid19 vaccination drives for the elderly disabled persons and those who are bedridden and unable to visit the inoculation centresThe states counsel Geeta Shastri submitted a draft policy before a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S KulkarniThe state had constituted a special task force comprising experts and stakeholders to come up with such a policy Shastri said While details of the policy could not be made public yet the same will be finalised within a week and submitted before the court she saidThe bench accepted Shastris submissionsAlso Read Doortodoor vaccination not possible will start neartodoor system Centre tells Bombay HCIt was hearing a bunch of PILs including a plea filed by lawyer Dhruti Kapadia seeking doortodoor Covid19 vaccination for people above 75 years of age and speciallyabled or bedridden personsDuring a previous hearing the high court observed that the Centre had not imposed any prohibition on states from carrying out doortodoor vaccination for the elderly and disabled citizensIt had also said the Union governments policy or the Standard Operating Procedure SOP on vaccination that did not provide for doortodoor drives was merely an advisoryOn Tuesday the bench said Prima facie we are of the opinion that the task force is proceeding in the right direction We however leave it to the task force to incorporate such measures which are beneficial for the health of the elderly and disabled citizensWe hope that when we take up this PIL next the state would be in a position to show us the approved guideline the court saidThe bench also directed the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC to submit municipal wardwise details of vaccines administered to the mentallyill and homeless people in the cityThe direction came on another PIL filed by lawyer Sarosh Bharucha seeking the courts intervention for ensuring greater access of vaccines to citizensBharucha pointed out that the existing state guidelines on Covid19 vaccination did not take into account covering persons who were mentally ill and those without a legal guardian and therefore not in a position to give an informed consent for receiving the vaccineThe HC asked the state and the municipal authorities to respond to the issue by next weekHow many homeless or mentally ill persons have been taken care of in every ward in the city We are talking of you state providing them food shelter vaccination everything the high court saidYour affidavit is absolutely silent on this issue We are a very complex society No one can be ignored or neglected the HC saidThe court will hear the above PILs next on June 29This 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