50+ non-voters may not get vaccine jab in Telangana

Hyderabad: Citizens above 50 years, whose names are not listed in the electoral rolls, may miss the opportunity to have the first shot of Covid vaccine to be administered to 80 lakh people in the first phase in Telangana.

The reason for this is that the centre in its guidelines has asked states to prepare the list of beneficiaries based on Parliament and Assembly voter lists. This has caused concern among the senior citizens whose names do not figure in any of the electoral lists. Does it mean that they will not be able to get the vaccine on a priority basis? they ask.

Talking to The Hans India some senior citizens said when one goes to the election booth to cast his vote, he is given several options which could be used as the identity of the voter. Similarly, in this case, too, the Government should have given the option of producing Aadhar card with date of birth in case the names do not figure in the voter lists.

The second problem is what if the name of such persons is in the voter lists in their home district while they live in Hyderabad? Going all the way to the home district for vaccination during a pandemic situation may not be advisable.

Moreover, one must take two doses of vaccine in a gap of 28 days or so. This means that senior citizens will have to travel twice.

"The total count of the citizens above 50 years would be around 18 to 20 per cent of the total the population of 4 crores in the Telangana state. A good number of them could miss the opportunity, if those whose names do not figure in voter lists are not considered for corona vaccination," a senior official said.

The district authorities were receiving pleas from the non-voters to include their names, officials said that unless the Centre changed the mandated norm of inclusion of names from the voter lists, the state would not consider the non-voters for vaccination in the first phase.

The Government already apprised the Centre of the issue and requested to consider other valid official documents like Aadhar, driving licences, tenth class study certificate etc to include the names of 50 plus age group people in the list of the vaccination programme. "We are awaiting the approval from the Centre to extend vaccination benefit to the non-voters above 50 years," he said.