West Bengal: TMC leader without injection training vaccinates woman, show caused

Former Asansol Deputy Mayor and the present member of Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC)'s Board of Administrators, Tabassum Ara, on Saturday morning visited a government Covid vaccination drive for sex workers at Chabka area in Kulti's Sitarampur in West Burdwan district. There she was seen vaccinating a woman in the video.

It was seen in the video that Tabassum Ara took a syringe from a medical staff and jabbed a local woman in presence of a doctor and medical officers.

Taking the matter to social media, BJP MP from Asansol and Union Minister, Babul Supriyo, tweeted: "Seems like TMC govt has no control over its administrators.TMC's Tabassum Ara, a member of the administrative body of AMC, has vaccinated people herself and risked hundreds of lives…Will her political colour shield her from stern punishment?"

Hours after the incident, AMC's Board of Administrators' chairperson Amarnath Chatterjee show caused the TMC leader.

Meanwhile, a doctor and two medical staff present at the vaccination camp during the incident were also served show cause notices by the AMC commissioner.

Officials in the West Bengal Health and Family Welfare department said that they were looking into the matter while the woman, who was jabbed by Tabassum, had been kept under observation.

TMC leader Tabassum Ara claimed that she did not vaccinate the woman and she only took the syringe into her own hand to 'spread awareness'.

Tabassum also claimed that she got some nursing training during her school days.

Senior medical officers of West Burdwan said that all medical teams engaged in holding vaccination camps across the district had been strictly directed to avoid such an incident in future.