UP minister loses cool as man complains of delay in vaccination

VARANASI: The minister of state (independent charge) for stamp and revenue in Uttar Pradesh, Ravindra Jaiswal, allegedly lost his cool when a man complained of inordinate delay in vaccination at the Shivpur Community Health Centre in Varanasi district on Saturday. A video clip of the incident went viral on social media.
The minister was on inspection to review the arrangements at the CHC where vaccination of people in the 18 to 44 age group had started on Saturday when the youth complained of delay and used intemperate language for the doctors and medical staff.
The minister later told reporters, “The youth had come hours before the time slot allotted to him online and was accusing doctors of delaying his vaccination and he was using abusive words for them.”
“There were two queues of people, one of those above 45 years and the other of 18-44 category. All the people in queue had been allotted time slots. The man Sanjay Dubey had been given time slot after 12 noon, but he reached CHC at 10am and was bullying CHC doctors and paramedical staff to vaccinate him first,” said Jaiswal.
He was using abusive words for doctors and CHC staff though they are working tirelessly to ensure registration, vaccination and post vaccination care, he added.
“People should have respect for the doctors and paramedics,” said Jaiswal.
Shivpur CHC was among 17 sites, where vaccination started with the opening of slot for those above 18 years. While the elderly were standing in a queue for their second shot, those registered in 18 plus category were in another queue.
By afternoon, there were long queues when Jaiswal, who had also tested Covid-19 positive, and had arrived at the CHC after completing his quarantine period to take stock of the arrangements.
When Dubey saw the minister he went near him and started complaining about the arrangements and delay saying people were standing in queues in hot weather and used abusive language for staff which infuriated Jaiswal who moved menacingly towards him.
The video of incident shows Jaiswal moving towards Dubey, but his security personnel and followers stopped him.
Later, Dubey alleged that he wanted to speak to the minister for knowing the reason for delay being caused in administering vaccines to the people when Jaiswal tried to assault him.