Vaccination drive: Collector Muralidhar Reddy suspends errant officials

Rajamahendravaram: Cracking whip on the erring officials, Collector D Muralidhar Reddy on Monday suspended two government employees for administering the first dose instead of the second dosed of vaccine to some persons intentionally and violating the rules. He suspended a mandal parishad development officer and an employee of the Irrigation department. The officials administered Covaxin, to 200 persons at a high school in P Gannavaram, which was intended for second dose only. The second dose was given to 189 persons and 11 doses givenas first dose.

Basing on complaints, Amalapuram Sub-Collector Himanshu Kaushik asked tahsildar D Mrutyanja Rao to conduct an inquiry into the incident and the Sub-Collector sent the report to the higher officials.

Subsequently, the Collector suspended P Gannavaram mandal parishad development officer Venkateswara Rao holding him responsible for the incident.

In another case, the Collector suspended a senior assistant Surya Prakash working as a senior assistant in Godavari Head Works, Dowleswaram. Urban health centre in Iswar Nagar allotted to give vaccine for frontline warriors of Dowleswaram Irrigation Circle and Municipal Commissioner Abishikt Kishore inspected the vaccination process. Some persons told the commissioner that they are relatives of senior assistant Surya Prakash and he observed that vaccine was misused there.

Irrigation Circle superintending engineer Sri Rama Krishna suspended Surya Prakash on the directions of the Collector.