Within minutes of the declaration of assembly poll results, 13 opposition parties on Sunday issued a joint statement urging the Modi government to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country and ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to all hospitals in the Covid-19 fight.
“In times of the uncontrollable surge of the pandemic across our country, we call upon the Central government to focus all attention in ensuring the uninterrupted flow of Oxygen supplies to all hospitals and health centres across the country,” said the statement by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and ten others.
The other signatories were Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and JMM chief Hemant Soren, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK chief M K Stalin, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, CPI leader D Raja and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury.
“We call upon the Central government to immediately launch a free mass vaccination programme across the country,” they said.
The opposition leaders asked the Modi government to utilise the budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for the vaccination programme.
The joint statement can be seen as a formation of a pressure group on national issues such as the ongoing pandemic in an attempt to influence central policies and actions.
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