After NDTV Report, Assam LPG Delivery Staff Designated Frontline Workers

Two days after NDTV carried a report of LPG distributors asking the Assam government to vaccinate cooking gas delivery staff by recognising them as frontline workers, the state government has said it will soon start inoculating them.

The Assam government today recognised LPG distributors and their staff as frontline workers.

The biggest cooking gas distributors' group in the north-east said they welcome the decision. The North East Indane Distributors Association had said it would shut down the LPG dealers' network in Assam if the state government did not vaccinate their entire lot of delivery staff within a week.

Some other north-east states - Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh - have already designated LPG delivery staff as frontline workers.

"We asked the government to recognise LPG distributors and delivery staff as frontline workers. Today, an order was passed where recognition was given," said Prabin Hazarika, general secretary of the association.

On Thursday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said the government would recognise LPG staff as frontline workers.

"They want vaccination, we can do that, there is no issue with that. Even from next week we are doing a drive for bankers, so for LPG frontline workers, we can even go to their plants and hold a vaccination drive. The authorities will immediately speak with LPG distributors to work this out," Mr Sarma told NDTV.

LPG distributors have said they and their delivery staff risk their lives by going inside containment zones to deliver cooking gas, and so they should be inoculated on priority.