Government won’t share information on vaccine policy, says it is of no public interest

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Editor's note: After putting the onus of vaccinating all Indians in the 18-44 age group against COVID-19 on states and private hospitals in May, the Centre is once again preparing to take over the bulk of India’s vaccine procurement following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a new policy on 7 June. Obviously things did not go as planned with massive vaccine shortages continuing to be reported across the country. Since January, when the national vaccination drive against COVID-19 was rolled out, multiple policies have steered its course with little success. Yet, the health ministry refuses to share critical information about them, as made abundantly clear by official replies received in response to multiple Right to Information, or RTI, applications filed by The Morning Context.  In identical replies to three RTI applications which sought information on different aspects of the previous three phases of the vaccination drive, including the most controversial third phase which was strongly criticized by the Supreme Court, the health ministry said it wouldn't provide the information as there was no public interest involved in its disclosure. It sought …