Kerala CM demands free vaccines for all
TRIVANDRUM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had offered free vaccines for all, has urged the federal government to ensure supply to meet the growing demand.
Many vaccination centres witnessed a heavy rush of people and chaos on Wednesday as they were not aware of the heavy shortage of supply.
The federal government this week announced vaccines for all adults from May 1.
Vaccine manufacturers can now sell the rest to the states and in the open market ater supplying half of the doses they produce to the federal drug laboratory for nationwide distribution.
“We had requested for 50 lakh (five million) doses of vaccine to implement our vaccination,” Vijayan said in a leter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We have received only 5.5 lakh does due to which we have been constrained to stop on-thespot registration affecting our effort to deal with the rapid surge.”
Vijayan, who ended the home quarantine that he entered into ater being tested positive along with his wife, daughter and grandchild, also held a review meeting here.
In the leter to Modi, he pointed out that the state governments were already facing additional financial commitments from the consequences of the pandemic.
“The state governments have been asked to get vaccines from manufacturers at a price,” the leter says.
“We have to provide vaccines to the public free of cost. As the economic downturn is still persisting, the additional burden will place considerable strain on state finances.”
He said the state governments had a constitutional obligation to provide vaccines free in the pandemic situation and states should get it as a public good.
The federal policy states they will provide vaccines free of cost to the states from its 50 per cent quota based on certain criteria.
The chief minister sought assurance from the prime minister that they will not be let to compete with open market players.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Vijayan of trying to create “unnecessary panic” leading to fights among people at vaccination centres.
BJP state unit chief K Surendran said Vijayan had on Dec.13, 2020, promised free vaccines to all as well as seting up a production facility in the state.
“It is not proper on the part of a person holding a high office to give such false promises to the people,” he said.