Assam launched an "Enhanced Covid Vaccination" drive on June 21. (File)
The Assam government has asked all its departments to find out the status of COVID-19 vaccination of frontline government employees before the salaries are disbursed to them from the "current month onwards".
In a hint that salaries might be held back for those who have not yet received at least one dose of Covid vaccine, Assam Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua, through a government notification, instructed all the department heads "to ascertain the vaccination status of such frontline government servants before releasing the monthly salary or remuneration from current month onwards."
The order came after the state administration said that it is mandatory for all workers of government and private enterprises, who have taken both doses of the vaccine, to attend office.
Assam had earlier issued a notification under the Disaster Management Act, asking all frontline government officials to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Mr Barua said many frontline government employees have not yet taken the shots and they can spread the virus.
The chief secretary, the order, said: "Non-vaccination of the frontline government servants may give rise to the possibility of further spread of the virus which, in turn, may endanger the lives of common citizens, especially the vulnerable groups like infant, pregnant women."
Coinciding with the centre's rollout of COVID-19 vaccines free-of-cost to all the states, Assam launched an "Enhanced Covid Vaccination" drive on June 21 targeting to inoculate 3 lakh people daily over the next ten days. The state crossed the daily target today by giving the shots to 3,31,315 beneficiaries above the age of 18.
The Assam government also relaxed the Covid curfew this week in places where the number of fresh positive cases has been below 400 in the past ten days. It revised the pandemic SOP on Monday after considering the improving trend.