'Use Central Vista money on Covid-19 vaccines': Opposition leaders write to PM

Twelve top Opposition leaders, including Congress, Trinamool Congress and DMK, on Wednesday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to procure Covid-19 vaccines centrally from domestic and global suppliers, invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic production and immediately start a free and universal vaccination across the country.

Emphasising that the pandemic has "assumed unprecedented dimensions of a human catastrophe" in the country, the leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, demanded that the government stop the Central Vista construction and use that money for procuring oxygen and vaccines instead.

The joint letter was also signed by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin (DMK), Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren (JMM), National Congress patriarch Farooq Abdullah, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, CPI General Secretary D Raja and Bihar Opposition Leader Tejaswi Yadav (RJD).

This is the second joint letter by Opposition leaders to Modi in 10 days. On May 2, the leaders had urged the Centre to focus all attention on ensuring uninterrupted oxygen supply to all hospitals and health centres across the country.

Read | Government bans photography, videography of Central Vista project site

"We have repeatedly in the past drawn your attention, independently and jointly, to the various measures that are absolutely imperative for the central government to undertake and implement. Unfortunately, your government has either ignored or refused all these suggestions. This only compounded the situation to reach such an apocalyptic human tragedy," they said.

The leaders also demanded that the government release all money held in the unaccounted private trust fund, PM-CARES, to buy more vaccines, oxygen and medical equipment. They also said that the jobless should be given at least Rs 6,000 per month, besides free distribution of foodgrain to the needy, saying that over one crore tonnes of foodgrain are currently rotting in central godowns.

Referring to the farmers' protests, they demanded that the controversial agri laws be repealed, so that lakhs of "our annadatas (providers of food)" can continue to produce food to feed the people.

"Though it has not been the practice of your office or government, we would appreciate a response to our suggestions in the interests of India and our people," they added.