AP seeks Centre’s guidance for achieving polls, vaccination goals

Amaravati, Jan 25 : As the Coronavirus vaccination plans of Andhra Pradesh government are set to be disrupted by the forthcoming panchayat elections, the state government wrote to the Union government for guidance on how to achieve polls and vaccination goals on Monday.
“In accordance with the directions issued by the High Court and Supreme Court, panchayat polls have to be held and as per the HC directions, both the vaccination and election ought to be undertaken. In the above backdrop we seek your guidance on the further road ahead to achieve the twin objectives of vaccination and conduct of elections,” wrote chief secretary Aditya Nath Das to Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan.
Das explained how vaccination for the frontline staff would be interrupted, affecting the health, police, revenue and municipal departments.
He said vaccination for 3.8 lakh healthcare workers has started, out of which 1.49 lakh took the vaccine jab until Monday, even as seven lakh more staff, including 73,188 police personnel needing to be vaccinated immediately after the healthcare workers.
The chief secretary said 2,041 session sites have been planned to cover the police, revenue and municipal departments.
“However, in the state of AP, the SEC has announced elections to the gram panchayats and the election process has started. There are approximately 1.35 lakh polling stations in the state and around five lakh staff will be deployed for election duty,” he highlighted.