The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has stopped “registering” names of people above 50 at its ward health clinics for vaccination against Covid, officials of the civic body said on Thursday.
Senior officials of the CMC’s health department conveyed the decision to stop the so-called registration to officials in charge of health services in the 16 boroughs of Calcutta at a meeting at the civic headquarters.
Metro reported on Thursday that some ward health clinics of the CMC had kept books where people above 50 were enrolling their names in the hope that they would get preference when vaccination of the general public would begin.
Senior state government officials had told this newspaper that the health department had not asked the CMC to register names of people above 50 since it was not clear when their turn would come for Covid vaccine doses.
Currently, health-care and frontline workers are being given Covid shots. The Centre has hinted that vaccination of people above 50 and those below 50 but with comorbidities would start after March 6.
“The commissioner of the CMC has instructed the civic health department to stop registration of names of Calcuttans above 50,” said an official.
This newspaper called municipal commissioner Binod Kumar on Thursday evening but he said he could not hear anything. He did not respond to text messages till late on Thursday.
The registration was being done at a few ward health clinics and it triggered a flood of queries from people in other parts of the city. In the absence of any public campaign by the CMC about the registration, people were also raising questions about the validity of the process.
WhatsApp messages, sent by some ward coordinators to select residents of their areas, were circulating across the city. Many people landed up at their nearest CMC offices to enquire about where and how to register their names.
CMC doctors managing health clinics where the registration did not start said they were under pressure from the respective ward coordinators — outgoing councillors — to start such registration in their clinics.
“We were telling the ward coordinators that there was no guarantee that the registration would be considered valid when inoculation of the general public would start, but they would argue with us. Today’s instruction to stop the registration will help us,” said a doctor.
“We would often get calls from residents who wanted to register their names.”
More than 1,300 names had been registered in Ward 82 in Chetla. A few names had also been registered in Ward 68 in Ballygunge.
The Covid-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines, issued by the Centre, mentions that “the latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly election will be used to identify people aged 50 years or more”.
A health department official said the state had to follow the guidelines issued by the Union health ministry in matters related to vaccination.
The so-called registration raised questions in the minds of people outside Calcutta whether the city was being given preferential treatment. Among Calcuttans who did not get WhatsApp messages from their ward coordinators, many wondered whether some people were being preferred over others.