In an apparent bid to encourage Covid-19 vaccinations, officials in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district have directed liquor shop owners not to sell liquor to those who are yet to get the jabs.
Hem Singh, Sub-divisional magistrate of Etawah, said the liquor shop owners had been asked to insist on seeing vaccination cards before selling liquor to those above 45.
Singh, who conducted an inspection of the liquor shops in Etawah town on Saturday, sent back those in the queue at the shops who told him that they had not yet got themselves vaccinated, according to the reports.
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''I will keep checking the shops to find out if the liquor shop owners are following it,'' Singh said. The official, however, hastened to add that it was an appeal only.
In neighbouring Firozabad district, the administration told the government employees that they would get salaries for the month of May only if they were vaccinated.
The officials, however, did not clarify if there were sufficient vaccines to vaccinate all those who were above 45.
The diktats came in the wake of reports about people refusing to get vaccinated in some villages in the state. In Barabanki district, some people had even jumped into the river after a vaccination team reached their village to give them jabs.