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The Opposition parties demanded the Centre to plug all the loopholes in the Covid-19 vaccination drive by correcting earlier mistakes.
Addressing reporters here on Tuesday, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said the Centre should explain its Covid vaccination policy to Parliament and should apprise the House about the roadmap for providing vaccines to all by December. He said the Centre is still considering registration in Cowin app as mandatory and it will exclude majority of the people who have no access to digital technologies. He said transparency can be ensured only if the policy gets House approval.
He said the Centre is “headline-driven and not deadline-driven” and added that the Prime Minister was sleeping until the Supreme Court reprimanded the Centre over the matter. He said there is only one programme for the Government, which is to vaccinate a hundred crore Indians by the end of December.
‘Fix a deadline’
“It shouldn’t be a moving deadline, should be a fixed deadline. We should have a road map and we should hold ourselves accountable. This is the national task, this is the national endeavour, we have to do this collectively. This is a collective crisis, it is a collective crisis brought about by the whims and fancies and failures of one person and his ego and his hubris, and his lack of humility and his lack of honesty, but, it is a price and a pain that the entire nation is bearing,” Ramesh said.
‘Why private sector?’
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement that Modi has not fully withdrawn his failed vaccine policy. “The Government has chosen to continue the dual pricing policy. As much as 25 per cent of vaccine production is still reserved for the private sector. This is nothing but a licence for loot by private manufacturers to make super profits. Further, at a time of acute vaccine shortage, the continuation of such a policy will dilute and weaken the need for universal vaccination essential to prevent a third wave of the Coronavirus. Only the rich can afford the exorbitant pricing of vaccines for the private hospitals permitted by the government,” it said.
CPI national secretariat asked the Centre to ensure free supply of vaccines with full transparency. It urged the Union Government to take into confidence the State governments as well as the public so that the entire population is vaccinated properly. “The party feels that there is no logic in allowing private hospitals to provide 25 per cent of vaccines and vaccination with a charge of ₹150,” the statement said.
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