Rajya Sabha MP and Congress leader Ripun Bora on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop COVID-19 tests for fully vaccinated travellers in Assam, saying such a step is nothing but a wastage of resources and harassment of people and may arise questions on the credibility of the vaccination programme.
Ripun Bora further stated that by making rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests mandatory for fully vaccinated travellers visiting Assam, the state government is following a contradictory policy.
Bora said the prime minister and the Union health ministry have been emphasising that people who have been administered the second dose are almost immune from further Covid infection and it is substantiated to be a generally accepted scientific opinion.
"But, contrary to this in Assam, the state government has been following a contradictory policy in this regard," he said.
The MP said all travellers who are fully vaccinated and coming to Assam from different parts of the country are subjected to rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests at all airports, railway stations of Assam, "resulting in heavy loss of time, wastage of resource and work power, in addition to facing harassment".
Even the repeated travellers to Assam are also not exempted and they are required to undergo tests on each and every journey entering in Assam, he said.
"This system has put a question mark in public perception in Assam on the credibility of the second dose of vaccine. Apart from this, we should be aware of the need of preventing any kind of wastage in public facilitations," he said.
Bora said every test kit is precious because they are provided to public at the cost of public money and therefore, these could not be wasted on the fully vaccinated people.
"Under this backdrop, I urge upon you to intervene into the matter and advise the Hon"ble chief minister of Assam to stop such wastage by testing people who have the due certificate of two doses of Covid vaccination and restore the confidence of the people on your massive campaign of double dose vaccination to protect people from the infection," the MP said in his letter to Modi.
However, the state government on Tuesday said that the passengers who are fully vaccinated need not have to undergo tests at airport but they must show negative tests report on arrival.
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