Rajasthan: Dholpur collector’s order on vaccination sparks panic

JAIPUR: Dholpur collector Rakesh Jaiswal’s order directing ration dealers to identify those who are not vaccinated through their shops has spread rumours that their names will be struck out from the list of beneficiaries. Several villagers have called out block development officer, gram sewaks and sarpanchs to clarify on the order and expressed their anger. Later, in the day, Jaiswal clarified that the order means that they will be identified only to encourage and motivate them for vaccination.
“The order never says they will be denied of the benefits if they are not vaccinated. It only means that once they will be identified we will approach them to for vaccination. The ration dealers will be trained to dispel their myth and counter misinformation related to the vaccines,” said Jaiswal, who said that vaccines can’t be the criteria for getting benefits of the schemes.
Explaining the need of such an initiative, he said that Dholpur’s 60% population is covered under the social welfare schemes. “I see this as an opportunity to reach out to 60% of our population by utilising the available human resource,” said the collector.
He said that so far 40% of the population has been vaccinated at least one of the doses. “My target is to vaccinate 90% of my district’s population. I am sure when we will approach them and convince them to get the vaccination done as soon as possible,” said the collector.