Can use data for COVID-19 vaccine drive, delete after exercise is over: Election Commission

The Election Commission will extend full assistance to the government in identifying targeted beneficiaries at the polling station level for the COVID19 vaccination drive but wants health authorities to delete the data once the inoculation exercise is over sources privy to the development said on FridayOn December 31 last year Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora requesting the commissions help in identifying people above 50 years of age at the polling station level the sources saidOn the issue of data security the home secretary wrote that the government is complying with the current best practices for ensuring cyber securityHe has assured the poll panel that the data will be used only for the purpose of vaccination the sources saidThe Election Commission EC after detailed deliberations wrote back to the home secretary on January 4 saying it has decided to render full assistance in the vaccination drive But asked the government to ensure that the data is strictly used for the limited purpose for which it has been sought the sources saidThe commission also said that the data should be deleted by health authorities once the vaccination exercise concludes they saidSome senior EC officials will be in touch with nodal officers of the Union home ministry and the Union health ministry to settle daytoday issues the sources saidLast month officials of the Union health ministry and the Niti Aayog had met the EC top brass seeking their help in the distribution of COVID19 vaccine given the poll panels robust network at the booth levelThe letter by the home secretary is a follow up to the meeting the sources saidAccording to guidelines for the COVID19 vaccination drive the latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and assembly elections will be used to identify the priority population over the age of 50 yearsTwelve identity documents such as Voter ID Aadhaar card driving licence passport and pension document will be required for beneficiary identificationAccording to the government the shots will be offered first to an estimated one crore healthcare workers and around two crore frontline workers and then to persons above 50 years of age followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbiditiesCost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers will be borne by the central governmentPrime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Indias COVID19 vaccination drive on January 16 via video conferenceThe Drugs Controller General of India had recently approved Oxford COVID19 vaccine Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country paving the way for a massive inoculation driveThis 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