The Ministry of Power has urged states to organise mass COVID-19 vaccination camps for power sector employees on priority in coordination with electricity utilities and their health departments, industry body AIPEF said. The Union power secretary on Monday wrote a letter to all chief secretaries of states and administrators of union territories in this regard, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said in a statement.

AIPEF Spokesperson V K Gupta said the federation had written to the Prime Minister and the power minister on April 18 requesting that all the power sector engineers and employees should be treated as frontline workers amid the pandemic.

The functioning of hospitals and testing laboratories is largely dependent on round-the-clock electricity supply, and power engineers and the technical staff of discoms play a major role in the fight against COVID-19.