Vax jabs: No end to miseries of sr citizens

Serpentine queues and waiting periods running into hours is a common scenario at and outside all vaccination centres in Mumbai, where people desperately wait to get vaccine jabs. Many have complained that the BMC should have made arrangement for senior citizens to book online appointment slots.

Many senior citizens feel the procedure has become more cumbersome than earlier. They say the situation was slightly better off almost two months ago when the vaccination drive first kicked off for those over 45 years.

The beginning of the vaccination drive had created a stage for political parties and social activists to earn brownie points which were done by arranging private buses to ferry senior citizens to vaccination centres and back.

“We ensured that there was no over-crowding neither on the road while queuing up nor inside buses. Sufficient buses were arranged for the same,” said Sanjay Jaiswal, an activist from Kandivali who arranged buses for ferrying senior citizens to vaccination centres.

These activists and political workers would book slots for senior citizens at these centres. According to Mumbai Bus Malak Sanghatana, they had received bookings for close to 200 buses for March and April from different political parties and social activists.

The scenario has totally changed since Friday, with the civic body only allowing beneficiaries with online pre-booked appointment slots. In a bid to control overcrowding at the vaccination centres, the BMC on Thursday decided that all potential recipients will have to mandatorily book an appointment on the CoWin app and that no walk-ins would be entertained.

This has triggered concerns and chaos among those who are unable to book online appointment slots.

"I received my first vaccine dose at Nesco, Goregaon through walk-in and I got a vaccine jab within five minutes after I entered the centre. For the second, it took two days for me to book the appointment," said Sharmila K, a senior citizen.