Team News Riveting
Raipur, April 23
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel drew the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards the vaccine price parity and urged to maintain uniformity.
Baghel was interacting with the Prime Minister along with Chief Ministers of other worst-infected states in a close-door virtual meeting to apprise about the steps taken. He urged that the vaccine to the states should be priced at the same rate at which the Government of India had been procuring. “This would reduce the financial burden on the States,” he said.
Besides the state’s health minister, T S Singh Deo, Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain and other top officials attended the meeting.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister said like the oxygen producing states supplying the surplus stock to the other regions on priority, the same practice should be adopted in the supply of Remdisivir and other lifesaving drugs. The Government of India should issue guidelines in the, he added.
In view of the abundance of steel industries in the state, Baghel requested the Prime Minister to grant permission for production and use of industrial oxygen in Chhattisgarh. This will not only save the economy from getting adversely affected but will also protect thousands of families associated with these industries from employment crises.
The Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister about the progress in COVID vaccination drive. He said nearly 18 per cent of the state’s population has been given the first dose of the vaccine. Further, 90 per cent of the health workers, 84 per cent of the frontline workers and 69 per cent of people of age above 45 ages had been vaccinated.
