J&K Govt Revokes Controversial ‘No Vaccine, No Ration’ Order After Outrage; Check Details

In Kashmir’s Bandipora district, officials have issued an order making it mandatory for persons above 45 to get themselves vaccinated against Covid-19 to collect their government ration. Issuing the order, the Assistant Director, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Bandipora on Monday said, “Please remember that without producing Covid-19 vaccination certificate, the ration will not be issued in any case.”

However, after the public outcry over the order, the concerned official withdrew it saying the public notice had “inadvertently made mandatory for persons aged 45 and above to vaccinate themselves against Covid-19 for the collection of ration.”

In another order, the district magistrate Budgam has asked the chief educational officer of the district to deploy teachers to mobilize “eligible Covid-19 vaccination beneficiaries” through the door-to-door campaign. In his order, the district magistrate has said that each vaccination site should vaccinate at least 100 people in a day. The order has asked concerned principals and others to monitor the exercise. According to the sources, some districts have made it mandatory for Panches and Sarpanches to go for vaccination or their honorarium will not be disbursed.

 The government said 442 new positive cases of Covid-19, 162 from Jammu, and 280 from Kashmir were reported on Monday taking the number of positive cases in J&K to 133454. However, out of 133454 positive cases, 4154 are active positive, 127290 have recovered.