JAIPUR: The Centre on Friday assured the Rajasthan High Court that Covid vaccines will be made available for the Pakistani Hindu migrants on the requisite of the state and district administrations in accordance with the SOP.
The High Court had taken the media reports and the submission filed by the amicus curaie Sajjan Sigh Rathore seriously which said that Pakistani Hindu migrants are not able to get vaccine due to lack of Aadhaar card.
The court had then asked the State and Central governments to respond to the submissions and also ordered the State government to provide food items to the Pakistani migrants.
On Friday, AAG KS Rajpurohit, appearing on behalf of the state government before the bench of Judge Vijay Vishnoi and Judge Rameshwar Vyas, said that the status of the vaccine is not clear in the central guidelines.
The court observed that SOP on vaccination of persons without prescribed identity cards through Cowin issued by central government is elaborate and in no way the Pakistani Hindus could be excluded. The court also observed that in spite of several directions regarding identification of group of people including in the SOP, the state has not submitted any details regarding identification of such groups.
Mukesh Rajpurohit, ASG, on behalf of the Central Government, said that in the central guidelines, it has been clearly mentioned that after receiving the requisite information from the state and district administrations, the vaccines will be provided to the Pakistani Hindu migrants.
On Thursday the Rajasthan High Court had asked the Centre to furnish a factual report on the availability of vaccines to the state government for Pakistani migrants who do not have prescribed identity cards. On behalf of Pakistani migrants, Seemant Loksanghthan, an NGO, had requested to vaccinate all the eligible migrants but the same has not been taken into consideration.
Delighted with the court decision, the president of the Seemant Lok Sanghthan, Hindu Singh Soda said, "Vaccination is a basic precautionary measure and its denial to someone because he/she doesn't have an Aadhaar card is violation of human rights. The court's decision is a major relief as this vulrunable class will now be vaccinated."
AAG KS Rajpurohit assured the court that the state government is taking full care of the needs of the Pakistani migrants. He said that 200 food packets were distributed through the Municipal Corporation on Thursday. As many as 7,500 Pakistani migrants are staying in Jodhpur. A large number of these people are self-sufficient and do not require food. Despite this, the district administration is making every effort to provide assistance to them, Rajpurohit said.