NEW DELHI: The home ministry is undertaking the mammoth exercise of identifying the total number of central and state police personnel in the country who, as "frontline workers" in the fight against Covid-19, shall be administered the vaccine on priority once the necessary approvals are in.
While a meeting was taken by Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla around a fortnight ago with the heads of central para-military forces like the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, etc. to collect the data on the total strength of their Covid warriors, another meeting was held by him via video-conferencing on Thursday with the DGPs/IGPs of state/UT police as well as DG of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards with the same objective.
Confirming the exercise, a senior official of a central para-military force told that the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) were asked to give data on their personnel, which is likely to help the home ministry in assessing the total requirement of vaccine doses for the 'frontline' police personnel and to subsequently work with the health ministry on the road map for administering them.
A home ministry source said no distinction may be drawn between police personnel on Covid duties such as those deployed in containment zones and those on other routine duties. "The police personnel, including those deployed on the border, work closely with the people and are at a higher risk of contracting the virus. So all police personnel must be administered Covid vaccine on priority," said an officer. The data on central and state police personnel and their zone of duty is likely to be shared with the health ministry to develop a schedule for their vaccination on priority.
The combined strength of central police forces like BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, NSG, etc. is around 10 lakh.