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NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hitting out at the Centre’s new vaccine policy and terming it “hollow, without substance and a regrettable show” of evasion of responsibility.
The central government on Monday announced that everyone above 18 years of age will be eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 from May 1, liberalising the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers.
“I am informed that the central government has announced the much-delayed universal vaccine policy on 19th April, 2021, which appears to be hollow, without substance and a regrettable show of evasion of responsibility by the central government at a time of crisis,” Banerjee said in the letter.
She also reminded the prime minister that she had in a letter dated February 24, 2021, requested his intervention to allow West Bengal purchase vaccines directly with state resources and give free vaccination to people of the state.
“No response was received from your end. Now when the number of cases in the second wave of COVID is spiralling like anything, the Centre has chosen to tactically indulge in empty rhetoric and shy away from its responsibility for making available vaccines to the people of the country,” Banerjee wrote.
She pointed out that the announcement made on Monday did not address major issues like ensuring quality, efficacy, stable flow of supply of required number of doses by the manufacturers and also the price at which the vaccines are to be purchased by the states.
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“It is apprehended that the announced policy might lead to unscrupulous mechanisms in the market, including pricing of vaccines as it appears to be based on market prices which may put the common people under huge financial burden.
“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,” the West Bengal chief minister said.
She added that the required vaccines are not currently available in the market and requested for steps to ensure their availability at the earliest.
“In sum, I would earnestly request you to kindly ensure a fair, transparent and credible vaccination policy addressing all the issues outlined above, which would enable the people of the country to get vaccines urgently at affordable prices as per current scale as applicable,” Banerjee said.
‘Allowing open market sale of vaccines after depleting stocks’
Banerjee also accused the Prime Minister of allowing open market sales of coronavirus vaccines after shipments made by him to foreign shores have depleted stocks in India.
Addressing an election meeting here, the Trinamool Congress supremo said the prime minister had exported vaccines to other countries to boost his image while states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and West Bengal have struggled to get doses they required to combat the Covid pandemic.
“Yesterday the PM said the medicine (vaccine) will be available in open market.
Where is the open market, where is the availabilty? You have already shipped out the majority of stock to foreign detinations,” she alleged.
The Central Government had gifted Covid vaccines to a number of countries including neighbouring nation and allowed export to many more including to Brazil and South Africa earlier this year.
Terming the Narendra Modi-led NDA government as a government of monumental incompetence”, Banerjee said “we are facing a huge deficit in vaccines due to the faulty planning.
The TMC supremo said more Covid cases are being reported from Kolkata, North 24 Parganas and Asansol belt and the state government is trying to manage the crisis from a limited stock.
“For six months the Central leadership did bother to plan, they were busy plotting electoral battles in Bengal, Banerjee alleged.
Turning her guns on BJP, she claimed the party brought in “lakhs of people from outside the state to help in campaigning and many of these people were infected with Covid.
These people will leave but they have spread the virus and the onus to manage the new crisis will be on us.
Bengal’s covid situation was firmly under control but now the rate is infection is rising again.
However, she advised people not to panic, adding we will again bring it (pandemic) under a tight leash.
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