Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit out on the Centre’s coverage on Covid vaccines, terming it “hollow”. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she mentioned there was “Covid vaccine shortage” in her state and added that the Centre’s coverage didn’t tackle the “key issues” and as a substitute it indulged in “empty rhetoric”.
Banerjee additionally criticised the Centre’s transfer to introduce vaccines within the open market and its directive to the states to deal immediately with the producers. She mentioned that this might result in “price fluctuation” because of which the widespread folks must bear the results. “More importantly, the supply would also become erratic because the vaccine manufacturers are barely prepared to scale up their production capacities to meet the nationwide demand,” she added.
Urging the PM to “maintain fairness” within the vaccine coverage, she wrote, “…the Centre announced the much-delayed ‘universal’ vaccine policy which appears to be hollow, without substance and a regrettable show of evasion of responsibility by the Central Government at a time of crisis.”
The CM claimed, “The (Centre’s vaccine policy) announcement does not address major issues such as ensuring the quality, efficacy, stable flow of supply of required number of vaccines by the manufacturers and also the price at which vaccines are to be purchased by the states.”
Reminding the PM of her February 24 letter by which she had sought his intervention to permit West Bengal to buy vaccines immediately with the state sources and distribute it free, she wrote, “Now when the number of Covid cases is spiralling in the second wave, 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.”
Mamata additionally talked about the “scarcity” of medicines used within the therapy of Covid-19. She urged the Centre to extend provide of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab. She mentioned, “We need around 6,000 vials of Remdesivir and 1,000 vials of Tocilizumab daily. However, at present only 1,000 vials of Remdesivir are available daily (in Bengal) and no fresh supply of Tocilizumab is coming. Kindly see to it that the authorities concerned step up their efforts to ensure steady supply of these essential medicines as soon as possible.”
Calling the Narendra Modi-led dispensation a authorities of “monumental incompetence”, Banerjee, who addressed three rallies in Murshidabad on Tuesday, mentioned that the Centre’s determination to export Covid-19 vaccines to different international locations has resulted within the “depletion” of India’s vaccine reserves.
The TMC chief additionally alleged that such an try by the PM to “boost his image” has resulted in lots of states, together with West Bengal, Maharashtra and the nationwide Capital Delhi, going through a “vaccine crunch”.
“The Prime Minister said Covid vaccine will be available in the open market. Where is that open market? You have already sent a large chunk of vaccines to foreign countries,” she mentioned, including “We are facing a deficit in vaccines due to the Centre’s faulty planning.”
