PALANPUR: Nonagenarian Santuben Parmar, living in Deodar of Banaskantha, a remote and tribal dominant district, has hardly moved out of her house for months due to age-related complications.
Her family was then surprised when her son received a message on his mobile phone that she was administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination.
Parmar had neither gone for vaccination nor had any health worker visited her home.
Parmar’s son, Thakarshi told TOI, “None of my family members have got vaccinated yet.
Naturally, I was surprised when I received a message about my mother getting vaccinated at a primary health centre (PHC) in Suigam.
I checked with the PHC and showed them the message, but they did not tell me anything about how this could have happened.” During a field visit to Banaskantha, TOI came across many such cases across the district where people had randomly received messages on their cell phones that they were vaccinated when in reality they had not taken the jab.
In fact, such cases raise a question mark over the veracity of the district administration’s claims made on May 11 that 98% of its 45+ years population had been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Officials claimed 6.04 lakh out of 6.18 lakh people in this age group were inoculated in the first two phases of vaccination drive.
This was claimed to be the highest coverage in this age group.
However, there are many people across villages in Amirgadh, Suigam, Vadgam, Palanpur, Deodar and Deesa talukas who were found to be vaccinated on paper only.
Manjula Rathod (50) from Vadgam also got a message on June 2 that she was vaccinated.
She said that she is yet to receive any dose of a Covid vaccine.
Dr Bhavi Shah, a resident of Deesa and a senior resident doctor in pediatric faculty at Banas Medical college in Palanpur, took both the dose of vaccines on February 9, 2021 and March 31, 2021 respectively.
So when she received two more messages about being vaccinated on April 4, she became apprehensive about possible irregularities.
“The two messages received mentioned different birth years in my name.
I shared the messages on social media, fearing possibility of some irregularity and around 15 friends of mine replied saying this had happened to them too,” she said.
A couple from Deesa, Sanjay and Naina Darji received a message that they were vaccinated with the second dose even though they did not take the shot.
“We got the first dose on April 10 under the category of frontline workers.
We were scheduled to take the second dose on May 25 but could not do so due to some pressing work.
On May 28, my wife and I received a message that we were vaccinated,” said Sanjay.
When apprised of the cases encountered, district development officer Ajay Dahia said that he would have to look into the cases on one to one basis.
He, however, stuck to the claims of successful vaccination drives and said, “If anyone from the rural areas is left out, we will cover them all.” In the hilly terrain of Amirgadh taluka, even young people were vaccinated in the category of aged above 45.
On the other hand, there are tribal populated villages where people were not vaccinated and no health officer visited.
Khimji Dungaisa, a sarpanch of group panchayats of six villages—Upla Khapa, Nichla Khapa, Upla Bandh, Nichla Bandh, Karamdi and Khati Sitra, said that there are around 7,000 people in all the villages and only three to four persons—Asha and Anganwadi workers, were vaccinated.
“Tribals cannot skip a day’s work to get vaccines and spend Rs 30 or Rs 40 to go to a PHC to get vaccines.
Government should hold a camp in our villages so that our people can be vaccinated,” said Dungaisa.
A villager of Khati Sitra said that a group named Bharat Sarkar, which is active in those villages, spread rumours that people may die or become impotent after taking vaccines so many people refrain from the vaccine drive.
Dudhaji Rajput, a sarpanch of Bharadwa village in Suigam taluka, said that many people in his village have received messages that they were vaccinated even though they did not take the shot.
“District administration and government are making false claims of vaccination coverage.
Many people have been deprived of the vaccines due to their corruption and fake vaccination drive,” said Dudhaji.
A villager in Bharadwa, Ramsinh Rajput said that he has been ferrying people for vaccination, but his own aunt was not vaccinated.
“But still she received a message that she was vaccinated.
An officer of Banaskantha district administration said that an inquiry has been initiated to verify the claims and ascertain the complaints, but the government personnel could not find aggrieved people.
A local youth Congress leader, Lalit Gadhvi said that he has come across many people who got messages of being vaccinated but were not inoculated.
“People are reluctant to come forward and speak on this issue as they are scared and fear being targeted,” said Gadhvi.
A corporator from Palanpur Sarfaraz Sindhi said that people also are afraid of falling ill, death and impotency.
“We have been trying to mobilise people for the vaccination drive now.
The claims of 98% vaccination seem to be fake as of now,” said Sindhi.
Ends..
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