Check jab status before giving salaries: Assam
GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Wednesday directed all department heads to ascertain the vaccination status of frontline government employees before releasing their monthly salaries.
The order was issued by chief secretary Jishnu Barua, in his capacity as chairperson of State Disaster Management Authority, Assam (ASDMA) after it was observed that several frontline government employees in the state were yet to get their Covid vaccination doses.
“Non-vaccination of such frontline government servants may give rise to the possibility of further spread of the virus, which in turn may endanger the lives of common citizens...,” the order said.
“Direct all department heads to ascertain the vaccination status of such government servants before releasing the monthly salary/remuneration from current month onwards,” it added.
There is no precise data on how many frontline government employees in the state were yet to get the Covid vaccine doses.
Some officials, however, indicated that the figure runs into several thousands.
Assam directed all government employees who got both doses of the Covid vaccine to join office on June 14. “During evaluation, it was found that thousands of frontline government employees who were registered in the Co-Win portal are yet to get their doses...,” said Dhiraj Saud, state project coordinator, ASDMA. “The order is...only for employees of departments like police, health, disaster management, revenue, transport, district administrations etc. where there is contact with the public,” he added.
There are some workers who haven’t taken doses for fear of side-effects and due to their medical conditions. Nearly 30,000 anganwadi workers and around 1% of the state’s police force are yet to get vaccinated, according to officials.
The government’s directive was, however, termed improper by some experts. “Whether to take vaccine or not is a matter of choice of any individual and can’t be forced upon by the government...,” said neurosurgeon Dr Navanil Barua.