Four Congress-ruled states accuse Centre of 'hijacking' Covid-19 vaccine stocks

The states expressed doubts they would be able to launch the inoculation drive to cover those between 18-45 years

Four Congress-ruled states on Sunday demanded that the Centre ensure availability of vaccines for the 18-45 years age group which will become eligible for immunisation from May 1.

“We spoke to Serum Institute of India, we were told that they will require time till May 15 to fulfil the orders placed by the Government of India. The supplies to states can begin only after that,” Raghu Sharma, Health Minister of Rajasthan told reporters in a virtual press conference with the health ministers of Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Jharkhand.

Sharma said the state has adequate capacities to launch vaccination drive for the 18-45 age group but has no access to vaccines.

Chhattisgarh Health Minister T S Singh Deo said the state government has made elaborate arrangements to complete the vaccination of the 18-45 years age group in 30-40 days.

Read | Congress highlights shortage of Covid vaccines, asks Centre to focus on it

“But how can we do vaccination when vaccines are not available?” Singh Deo asked.

Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu demanded that the Centre pick up the entire tab for vaccination as the state governments had made no allocations for the vaccines in their respective budgets.

“The Centre had made an allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for vaccination in the Union Budget, they should spend on vaccines for everyone,” Sidhu said.

Read | Congress sets up control room to coordinate Covid relief with its state units

Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta said the Central government has hijacked all the quota of vaccines and wondered how the state governments were supposed to carry out vaccination drive without the vaccines.

“Centre has announced that states will vaccinate those between 18-45 years of age. How are we supposed to do it when vaccines are not available?” Gupta asked.

The third phase of the vaccination drive, covering the 18-45 years age group, begins on May 1 and the beneficiaries in this category will have to get themselves vaccinated at private vaccination centres or those set up by the state governments.

The Centre will vaccinate only those above 45 years of age, besides healthcare workers and frontline workers.