C’garh scribes, kin to be regarded as frontline workers for Covid vaccination

An official statement said the directive is based on the recommendation of a committee under the Chief Secretary, adding that the CM had already issued instructions in this regard but they were pending for implementation as the matter was sub-judice

Journalists, lawyers, state government and PSU employees, and their kin are among those who will be given priority as frontline workers in Covid-19 vaccination in Chhattisgarh, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has said.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. (HT file)

An official statement said the directive is based on the recommendation of a committee under the Chief Secretary, adding that the CM had already issued instructions in this regard but they were pending for implementation as the matter was sub-judice.

The release said that while several states have included lawyers and journalists as frontline workers for the vaccination drive, the state government has extended it to their families as well.

Besides people with comorbidity as defined by the health department, “those engaged in distribution of food, vegetable sellers, bus drivers and conductors, anganwadi workers, panchayat workers, PDS shops managers and vendors, women living in institutional care, kotwar (local level revenue personnel) of village, will also be treated as frontline workers,” the release said.

People working in old age homes, women and children care centres and crematoriums, differently-abled people, employees of semi-government agencies engaged in providing essential services and those who have been deployed for Covid-19 duty by collectors will be vaccinated under the frontline worker criteria.