RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh Janata Congress (J) president Amit Jogi has moved the high court through an intervention application, praying for a direction to ensure a just and reasonable allocation of Covid vaccines to all within the age bracket of 18-44 years without any unreasonable classification, reservation or prioritisation. In his application for intervention in the suo-moto writ petition, Jogi said he is moving the present application after being aggrieved by two state government orders which "violated the fundamental rights of public at large guaranteed by our Constitution".

In his application, Jogi, a former legislator, pointed out that the state government had passed an order on April 30 in which it included a classification in the form of reservation for the economically weaker section, benefiting with vaccination for the age group of 18-44 years. By the impugned order, the application said, the first preference for vaccination for the age group of 18-44 years has been allotted to the Antodaya beneficiaries, the second round has been allotted to individuals below poverty line and in the third round to the above poverty line. Besides, the order further prescribed that all the vaccines procured by the state after May one will only be made available through government centres thereby subjecting it to the scheme of distribution. The application said that later the state government also issued another order on May 1 directing that the CIWIN portal shall not be opened for individuals within the age bracket of 18-44 years.

Pointing out that the impact of the pandemic has never been caste or class specific, the JCC (J) leader said the only available and efficacious remedy against this overpowering pandemic is vaccination. He said the previous sanction of vaccine for frontline workers and citizens above 60 years was a decision strongly backed by data as well as WHO guidelines.

The application, moved through his counsel Arvind Shrivastava, state the orders passed by the state with distinction and differentiation, in terms for reservation in vaccination for economically weaker sections, is not only a mockery of present state of affairs but also endangers public at large by an accelerated Covid-19 infection which despite lockdown is running like wild fire. It said no legislation including Chhattigarh State Disaster Management Act, 2005 empowers the state to formulate such classification in allotment of such essential resources, backed by no quantifiable data.

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