PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Thursday suggested that the State government make vaccination mandatory and announce that only those who get vaccinated would be eligible for welfare schemes rolled out by the government.
In a statement, he expressed concern over the slow pace of vaccination in the State with only less than 10% of the population covered and said that to increase coverage, the State government can consider making the process mandatory if the need arises.
Mr. Ramadoss cited that lower vaccine allocation from the Centre to Tamil Nadu, the State government not speeding up the vaccination process for people who have completed 18 years and reluctance shown by people in taking the vaccine especially in villages, as the reasons for the low coverage.
When the vaccination programme was rolled out, Tamil Nadu had a lower number of COVID-19 cases. But now the situation has changed and the Centre not increasing its vaccination allocation is not justified, he said. The State government should take measures to get increased vaccine allocation and also speed up the vaccination process, Mr. Ramadoss said.
He also said it is important for the State government to create awareness among people in the villages about the benefits of vaccination and rebuff any fake information circulating among them.
Mr. Ramadoss said the COVID-19 second wave is spreading among villages more when compared to the first wave and one of the reasons for this is that people have not taken the vaccination.
