JOIN USMamata Banerjee says Centre's Covid-19 vaccine policy appears hollow, without substance
A day after the Centre announced that everyone above 18 years of age will be eligible to get Covid-19 vaccine and allowed state governments and private hospital to procure vaccines, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the decision as a “regrettable show of evasion of responsibility” by the Centre. She also dubbed it as “hollow and without substance.”
She alleged that the Centre’s decision was a ploy to dodge responsibility of making vaccines available in the market when Covid-19 cases were skyrocketing in the country. Reminding the Prime Minister that she had written to him on February 24, requesting to allow the state government to procure vaccines directly from manufacturers, Mamata said that she was yet to receive any response from him.
“Now when the number of cases in the second wave of Covid is spiraling like anything, the Centre has chosen to tactically indulge in empty rhetoric and shy away from it’s responsibility of making vaccines available to the people of the country,” said Mamata.
She further alleged that the Centre’s announcement does not address major issues such as quality, efficacy and “stable flow of supply” of vaccines from the manufacturers and the price of the vaccines to be procured by the state governments.
Expressing concern that the Centre’s decision may lead to “unscrupulous mechanisms” in the market such as pricing of vaccines which will be based on market prices, the Chief Minister said that it may end up putting a financial burden on the people.
“More importantly, the supply would also become very erratic because the vaccine manufacturers are hardly prepared to scale up their production capacities to the desired levels to meet the nationwide demand,” said Mamata.
She reiterated her claim that vaccines were not available in the market and urged the Prime Minister to take necessary steps to resolve the issue at the earliest. Mamata requested the Prime Minister to ensure a “fair, transparent and credible” vaccination policy.
Earlier in the day at a rally in Murshidabad district, Mamata slammed the Prime Minister for exporting vaccines to other countries while states like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Rajasthan suffered from its acute shortage.