HC asks Maharashtra govt for door-to-door vax drive guidelines by Monday

Expressing dissatisfaction on the progress by the Maharashtra government with regards to preparing the guidelines for door-to-door vaccination, the Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state to submit the guidelines by Monday and also publicise the initiative through mass media by Saturday

Expressing dissatisfaction on the progress by the Maharashtra government with regards to preparing the guidelines for door-to-door vaccination, the Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state to submit the guidelines by Monday and also publicise the initiative through mass media by Saturday.

HT Image

The HC bench said, “We are not satisfied with the progress made so far. We are not saying anything more right now. We want an appropriate guideline. It is high time that you [state] should have formulated a policy. Advertisements should be published in newspapers to inform people as to how the facility will be made available. Also have helplines. We want it to be published and informed by tomorrow [Saturday] and guidelines by Monday.”

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by city-based lawyers Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari was informed by advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni for the state that the state would require two more weeks to finalise the guidelines for initiating door-to-door vaccination.

The state informed the court that after HC’s directions in the previous hearing, it had started a survey across all the districts and cities to ascertain the number of people needing vaccination at home. But as the survey was incomplete, it required time to start the pilot drive to vaccinate the severely ill, bed-ridden and elderly patients who cannot go to vaccination centres to get jabs, the state said.

Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) informed HC that it had initiated a survey of bed-ridden patients across all the 24 wards in the city and till Wednesday had found 2,780 such persons. The civic authority informed the bench that while the survey was completed in seven wards, the numbers of other wards would be available soon.

The PIL had sought home vaccination for those who could not go to centres and had also cited instances of such drives in other states. While the centre was not willing to permit home vaccination based on various grounds and the recommendations of the NEGVAC – the expert committee set up by it – the court had asked the state to overcome its hesitance and start the drive to save lives.

In the last hearing, the state had informed the bench that based on recommendations of the state Covid-19 task force it had decided to start the home vaccination initiative in Pune on pilot basis and would prepare the guidelines for it within two weeks.

On Friday, Kumbhakoni informed that the state had initiated a survey across all districts to identify the beneficiaries and provide their details to their respective ward or corporation offices. He added that the initiative was publicised through advertisements in the print and electronic media as well as on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc and the process was ongoing. He added that they had received emails from interested persons on the dedicated email id.

When asked about the number of beneficiaries in Pune, Kumbhakoni said there were 50 in the main city, while Pune-Chinchwad had around 2,000 such beneficiaries.

BMC through senior counsel Anil Sakhare informed the bench that the door-to-door survey in 17 wards would be completed soon. Data provided by BMC showed that R-Central ward had the highest number of bed-ridden and elderly persons who required home vaccination at 297, followed by N-ward (290) and S ward (268). No citizen in H-West, F-North and E wards needed vaccines at home.

Kapadia submitted that the survey could be more effective if there was a helpline number for people to call in and inform the authorities concerned of their requirement for home vaccination and the authorities could also use radios to publicise the initiative and reach out to all the beneficiaries.

The PIL is posted for further hearing to July 19.