KOLKATA: The civic body and Kolkata Police top brass on Thursday asked officials at borough offices and officers at police stations to ensure that no unauthorized off-site vaccination camps are held.
The directives came in the wake of the fake vaccination camps that have come to light after the arrest of conman Debanjan Deb.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) top brass on Thursday alerted all borough executive health officials and medical officers to keep a close watch on all off-site vaccination camps organized within their jurisdictions.
The borough health officials were also asked to keep the local police stations informed about them.
“We have made it mandatory for organizers of all off-site Covid vaccination camps to apply online.
We will scrutinize the applications and documents relating to the purpose of such a camp and give approval only to those which are bona fide,” said a KMC official.
Deb had used KMC banners and logos on stationery at the camps.
Health officials in Borough XII, under which the camp was held for 10 days, said they were ignorant about it.
The Kolkata Police top brass has also asked all police stations to check the authenticity of each off-site vaccination camp in their respective areas to ensure they had been mandated by KMC.
The communications to DCPs was sent from Lalbazar on Thursday evening.
The Kasba PS had not been informed about the fake camp.
“Each camp has to mandatorily have permission from KMC or the state health department.
In case the permission is not in place, the camp has to be flagged,” an officer said.
However, cops deployed at police stations said the job will not be easy.
“There are hundreds of such special camps each day.
If these are just half-day or day-long programmes, it might not always be possible for us to verify details.
While the idea of the portal — as proposed by KMC — will be a big relief, we would want the health department to make it mandatory for all health camp organizers to inform us about Covid vaccination drives beforehand,” said an officer.
With KMC requesting police for a list of all recipients at the camps organized by Deb, cops have decided to ask the organizers to try and provide at least the number of people who are getting vaccinated.
These camp organizers, cops said, must keep a database of all recipients so it can be produced to cops whenever asked.
The cops will also visit the homes of recipients to check on them if required.
With reports in Mumbai of over 2,500 people receiving fake jabs after the accused met the housing societies to offer camps, the police are also likely to meet RWAs and ask them to be careful if they receive such offers.
“We will advise them to get in touch with borough offices and local coordinators before taking the final step,” said an officer.