According to the source: the Election Commission has asked the Centre Government to remove PM’s photo from the vaccine certificates from the states who are heading towards their assembly elections in the upcoming four weeks.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata’s Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has filed a complaint with the Election Commission earlier this week alleging “blatant abuse of official machinery by the Prime Minister” in the state.
As per the source, the powerful election body first requested a report from the West Bengal Electoral Officer in this matter and then asked the Union Health Ministry to remove the photo of the Prime Minister. In the poll-bound states, the government has been asked to follow a scheme that will not allow PM Modi’s picture to appear on the vaccine certificate.
Bengal’s ruling party has mentioned that the photographs of the PM are proof of the breach of the poll code accusing him of taking credit from doctors, nurses, and healthcare employees and “appropriating their dues.”
“By placing his photograph, name, and message on the provisional certificates issued by the ministry of health and family welfare, he is not only exploiting his post and powers but also stealing commendable credit from the producers of Covid vaccines. He is blatantly appropriating the dues of a vast army of selfless doctors, nurses, and health service workers,” Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien wrote in the letter to the election body.
The Election Commission must prevent the Prime Minister from taking the “unfair advantage and excessive publicity at the taxpayer’s expense” during elections, the Trinamool MP insisted.
However, the other states can place the PM’s photo on the vaccine certificates. The second phase of vaccination for those over 60 and for those people who are above 45 with severe illnesses can also register for the Covid shots.
