About 7,000 employees of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport undertaking (BEST) have been administered the COVID-19 vaccine. The employees are called to the vaccination centre via an SMS. However, it came to light that many staff members had uploaded wrong mobile numbers to avoid getting the vaccine. As a way out, BEST has linked the salary accounts of its employees with their mobile numbers.
Now, no employee can claim to not have received an SMS or intimation about visiting the vaccination centre for the injection.
All 34,000 employees of BEST are aware that they need to get vaccinated as they are part of essential services category that is receiving the vaccines on priority. Their mobile numbers are available on the CoWIN portal. Now that the mobile numbers are linked to their salary accounts, uploading a fake mobile number will mean risking losing their salary.
To streamline the vaccination of the workforce, BEST has made it mandatory for each employee to present her /his identity card along with a government ID proof at the time of vaccination. Also, now all employees have to submit the details of their salary account to the administration along with their registered mobile number.
Mass vaccination drives are also being planned at the BEST employees’ residential quarters, on weekends.
