Election Commissioner, fellow Commissioners get inoculated

New Delhi, March 9 : Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora along with Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar took the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

The Election Commissioners took the first shot of Covid-19 vaccine during an immunisation drive being conducted here at Nirvachan Sadan for the last week.

The special vaccination camp started at Nirvachan Sadan on March 4 ahead Assembly polls in four states and one Union Territory slated in March and April.

The aim of the drive was to encourage the poll duty officer to perform their duty without any fear of the deadly pandemic.

Under the special vaccination drive, lakhs of polling officials across Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry– the states and the UT going to polls between March 27 and April 29– will take the vaccine shots before proceeding on election duty.

Former Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill took the first jab to mark the beginning of the vaccination drive on March 4.

Arora and his colleagues Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar are the last among all Election Commission staff and employees to get vaccinated.

Arora recently announced that all staff on poll duty for the upcoming assembly elections have been declared as “frontline workers” and therefore will be vaccinated before assuming their election duties.

He added that the vaccination would encourage the poll duty officers to perform their duty without any Covid fear as more than 1.11 core people across the country has so far infected with the disease and 1,57,435 has lost their lives

Arora had also said that the nationwide vaccination drive has made the situation more conducive for conducting elections.

–IANS
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