Mumbai: In its inquiry report, the BMC on Saturday said that Hiranandani Heritage Club (HHC) didn’t take its permission and neither did it comply with the guidelines that the BMC issued on May 7, regarding arranging vaccination drives at housing societies.
After residents of the society complained of a fraudulent vaccination drive arranged at their society, the BMC had initiated a thorough inquiry into the matter. Deputy municipal commissioner (zone 7) - Vishwas Shankarwar was entrusted with carrying out the inquiry.
The BMC in a statement on Saturday said that, "It has come to light that the circular issued by the BMC on May 7, 2021 regarding the guidelines to be followed by the housing societies for vaccination has not been complied with and no permission has been sought from the concerned for organizing the vaccination,"
Total 390 beneficiaries living in the resident took their doses on May 30, when a vaccination drive was arranged in the society by a supplier who claimed to be from Kokilaben Hospital - Mumbai. As per the BMC report, beneficiary had paid Rs 1,260 per dose and total Rs 4.56 lakhs were paid to the supplier. The report also said that out of the total beneficiaries only 120 have got their certificates.
Furthermore the statement also mentioned that on the day of the vaccination, the representatives of the supplying firm didn't carry any laptop or any other electronic device that may be required for registering the credentials of the beneficiaries in the CoWin app.
"It also needs to be highlighted that fake certificates have been issued to the beneficiaries and the suspected vaccine has been obtained in an unauthorized manner," the report said.
Suresh Kakani - additional municipal commissioner and in-charge of public health in the BMC said that the batch numbers provided in the vaccine certificates doesn't match with the batch number of the vaccines that have been used from the inventory of Mumbai and its adjoining districts.
"The mismatch in the batch numbers clearly states that the suppliers have procured the vaccines from a different supply channel and not from BMC or any other municipal body of the adjoining districts," Kakani told FPJ on Saturday.
"It may be possible that the suppliers might have acquired the vaccines directly from the manufacturers using fake credentials or any other private sources or from any other source that may be based outside Maharashtra," he added.
In the report the BMC also maintained that the inventories of the private hospitals that have been named in the certificates have also been investigated and it was revealed that they have entered into any agreement with the housing society.
Furthermore Kakani said usually a housing society informs the local ward office about the drive following which, officials visit the venue for inspection and would take down every detail so that incase there's anything unscrupulous happened, the issue could be chased down.
"Whereas here everything happened without the rules being followed," said Kakani.
Local Bharatiya Janata Party legislator - Yogesh Sagar said that he had already warned the residents before the drive.
"I had told them, first get one beneficiary inoculated and if certificates aren't generated within an hour then don't continue the drive and understand that its fake," Sagar told FPJ