Health secy briefs EC on Omicron situation
CEC, election commissioners likely to visit UP this week
Four days after the Allahabad high court urged the Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider deferment of the Assembly elections in the wake of the rising cases of Omicron and the
Covid-19 third wave across India, the Election Commission on Monday held a meeting with the Union health secretary for an assessment of the situation.
Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan briefed the EC about the prevailing
Covid-19 and Omicron threat in the country, specially in the five pollbound states. The discussions also focused on the steps needed to conduct the polls in a safe manner despite the pandemic and the vaccine coverage.
While there is no official word on the meeting, it is learnt that there is a strong possibility of the Assembly polls taking place as scheduled and not being postponed. The CEC and the other election commissioners are expected to visit Uttar Pradesh this week where Assembly elections are due. Another meeting between the EC and health ministry officials is expected to take place in early January
2022.
The commission noted that the percentage of those administered the first dose of Coronavirus vaccine was still less in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur, while it was nearing 100 per cent in Uttarakhand and Goa.
The poll panel also asked health secretary Rajesh
Bhushan to expedite administering second dose to those eligible in these five election-bound states, highly-placed sources said.
Last week the Allahabad high court had urged the EC to consider the postponement of the elections in view of the third wave. “Jaan hai toh jahan hai,” Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav said while hearing a petition.
His comments on Covid19 and the elections came after he observed that the court was very crowded. “If possible, consider postponing the election, because rallies and meetings can be held later when we all survive,” he said.
In a separate meeting with enforcement agencies and central forces, the poll panel asked the top brass of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to check the influence of drugs in elections.
Uttar