Team News Riveting
New Delhi, June 4
Congress-ruled Punjab government offered an issue to the BJP that would literally help it score over its opponent in the vaccine war.
The opposition parties, especially Congress, had been taking a dig at the Narendra Modi government over the alleged shortage and irregularities in the vaccine. The Punjab government’s alleged attempt to ‘reap profits’ from the sale of Corona vaccine had armed the BJP to take on opponents.
The Punjab state government reportedly diverted the vaccines from its quota to private hospitals and charged hefty money for it. As the issue snowballed into a major controversy and the Centre stepped in, the state government went in a defensive mode and asked the private hospitals to return all the vaccines.
The vaccines, which were acquired by Captain Amarinder Singh government for inoculating people between 18 and 44 preferably with co-morbidities, were apparently sold to private hospitals. This deprived the poor of their change of vaccination.
The state government had, however, assured the private hospitals that it would refund the money.
The BJP did not waste much time to hit as Union Minister Prakash Javadekar slammed Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for the political turmoil in Punjab and said the Congress leader should first look after states ruled by his party before giving lectures to others.
Briefing mediapersons, Javadekar said, “Rahul Gandhi should first look after his (Congress-ruled) states rather than giving lectures to others. Punjab Government has provided more than 1.40 lakh doses of Covaxin at Rs 400 and they have given it to 20 private hospitals at Rs 1,000.”
He said the Government of India has given 22 crore COVID vaccine doses to all states for free. He added that it is the state governments that had demanded decentralisation of COVID vaccines. Now when it has been done, the States are demanding centralising the vaccine supply.
