Centre ‘must have ears on ground’: SC on vax policy
Govt told to be flexible, ensure same price for doses across the nation
NEW DELHI: Highlighting digital divide between rural and urban India, the Supreme Court Monday posed searching queries to the Centre on mandatory registration on CoWIN for COVID jabs, vaccine procurement policy and differential pricing, saying the policy makers must have ears on ground to effectively deal with the unprecedented crisis.
Asking the Centre to “smell the coffee” and ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are available at the same price across the nation, a special bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud advised the government to be flexible with its policies to deal with the dynamic pandemic situation .
“We are not framing the policy. There is an order of April 30 that these are the problems. You should be flexible. You cannot just say that you are the Centre and you know what is right. We have a strong arm to come down on this,” said the bench which also comprised justices L N Rao and S Ravindra Bhat. Justice Chandrachud, who himself is recovering from the infection, questioned the vaccine procurement policy and raised the issue of digital divide questioning the policy of mandatory registration on CoWIN App for jabs.
“You keep on saying the situation is dynamic but policy makers must have their ears on ground. You keep on saying ‘digital India, digital India’ but the situation is actually different in rural areas. How will an illiterate labourer from Jharkhand get registered in Rajasthan? Tell us how you will address this digital divide,” the bench asked.
“You must smell the coffee and see what is happening across the country. You must know the ground situation and change the policy accordingly. If we had to do it, we would have done it 15-20 days back,” it said.