Odisha Holds Covid-19 Vaccination Drive In Kotia, Andhra Distributes Old Age Pension

Jeypore: In a bid to encourage the tribal residents in disputed Kotia villages, Koraput district administration has conducted a vaccination drive against Covid-19 in the controversial regions on Monday.

Odisha government, which had set a target to administer the vaccine to as many as 100 elderly citizens including people with comorbidities, however has crossed target with inoculating 114 beneficiaries.

Former Collector Gadadhar Parida also visited Kotia health centre to take the vaccine shot instead of doing the same at a health centre near his residence in Jeypore.

"The movement we had launched for Kotia has turned into a mass movement. Today, I wanted to make a small contribution to this movement. I decided to take the Covid-19 vaccine shot at Kotia health centre so that locals would get encouraged. On my arrival, many elderly tribals also came up and took the opportunity," Parida said.

The administration had also distributed caste certificates to the residents in several villages of Kotia. Officials of Pottangi tehsil made a door to door visit at Phagunasineri and Phatusineri villages to hand over the cast certificate to the beneficiaries.

On the other hand, officials of Andhra Pradesh distributed old age pension to the elderly beneficiaries at Ganjeipadar in Kotia. They gave away Rs 2250 to each beneficiary in the village, sources said.