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Waive Aadhaar card rule for vaccinating inmates: Maharashtra prison dept to state
The Maharashtra prison department has written to the state government, requesting that the mandatory Aadhaar card rule be waived for vaccination
The Maharashtra prison department has written to the state government, requesting that the mandatory Aadhaar card rule be waived for vaccination. The department has claimed that over 517 inmates lodged across various jails in the state are foreign nationals and do not have Aadhaar cards and should instead be allowed to avail a vaccine shot by showing their passport.
As per data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, till December 2019, the state had 517 foreign inmates (51 convicts and 466 undertrials), of which 408 are males and 109 females.
The Arthur Road jail (Mumbai Central), Byculla women’s prison, Thane jail, Taloja Central Jail, Kalyan Adharwadi jail and Yerwada Central Jail (Pune) alone have more than 250 foreign inmates.
These inmates are mostly from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria and other African countries, as well as from the Middle East and South America.
“We have written to the state government about the issues over making Aadhaar card mandatory for vaccination. We have requested to waive the rule off for prisoners across Maharashtra, irrespective of their nationality,” Sunil Ramanand, additional director general (ADG) of police (prison), said.
A jail officer from Maharashtra jail has claimed that the only documents foreign inmates have is a passport. “The passport is the valid document through which they came to India. They submit the passport in court after they are arrested. The government should allow passports as documents for vaccination. Our aim is to vaccinate every prisoner and keep them safe from the virus,” said the officer.
Sources from Maharashtra prison department said that even many Indian inmates do not possess an Aadhaar card.
The vaccination process across the prisons in the state for inmates above 60 years and above and then for those in the 45-59 age group began last month as per the central government guidelines. “But this is merely 10% of the inmates. Many jails are overcrowded and the government should set up different guidelines for jails,” said a prison department source.
“Moreover, inmates are taken to hospital for vaccination everyday. We need staff to guard the inmates on a regularly for the purpose. If the vaccination drive is started at jails, it would be a safer for guards as well as the inmates,” said the official.
