Between March 30 and April 2, a month before the country opened the vaccine registrations for people between the ages of 18 and 44, IIT Gandhinagar had vaccinated over 900 people, including faculty, staff and students. Many of them were below the age of 45 at that time when the country was already reporting a vaccine shortage.
Now, an RTI reply by the institute says that the drive was only "facilitated" by the IIT and that the members of IITGN's community were vaccinated because they "volunteered to act as Corona essential workers." Before the drive, the Ministry of Education had written to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with a request to vaccinate the students, staff and faculty of Centrally Funded Technical Institutes. However, the request was denied by the latter. The MoHFW's denial letter was however sent on April 5, four days after the vaccination drive at IITGN.
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The institute however says that it has no data on how many Corona essential workers are there on campus. "As the Institute only facilitated vaccination by the local health authority, thus the Institute did not maintain any such record," reads the RTI reply. At the same time, it agrees that there are essential workers below the age of 45 residing on campus. Adding to this, the institute denies receiving any communication from competent authorities with regards to vaccinating students.
