Gujarat, the population of which is less than Tamil Nadu has received 10 per cent more vaccine vials than TN, Tamil Nadu’s Health Minister Ma Subramanian alleged on Monday, 24 May.
Answering a question on whether Centre’s vaccine allocation was biased, he said,
“We have been emphasising that this is not the appropriate time for a blame game. However, there is an element of truth in it. Gujarat that has a population of 6.37 crore has been allocated 16.4 per cent vaccines, while Tamil Nadu which has a population of 8.38 crore has been allocated just 6.4 per cent.”Tamil Nadu’s Health Minister Ma Subramanian
‘Poor Allocation to TN’
As the vaccine allocation from the Centre is rather low, the state has been facing an acute vaccine shortage, he added. However, the government is doing all that it can to bolster vaccination drive in the state, he said.
The Health Minister said that the state had paid Rs 46 crores for 13 lakh vaccine doses to cover the 18-44 age group. “Of these, we received 11 lakh doses and sent them to all districts.”
The state began vaccination for this group on Tuesday, 25 May, although it was open only for priority groups such as newspaper distributors, auto drivers, persons with disabilities and factory workers. “Once the state receives 3.5 crore vaccine doses through global tenders, the remaining population in the 18-44 age group will be vaccinated,” the minister said, The Hindu reported.
Madras High Court Calls Out Vaccine Shortage
On Monday, the Madras High Court too expressed its disappointment over the Centre’s vaccine allocation to Tamil Nadu.
While hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation, taken up by the court to monitor the fight against Covid-19, Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy observed that the future of vaccine allocation to Tamil Nadu appeared skewed and disappointing since it was not in consonance with the number of cases being reported in the state every day. The state has been reporting over 33,000 COVID cases since the past few days.
The court observed that the allocation “may be revisited” by the Centre, The Hindu reported.
Stalin to Centre: Produce Vaccine at HLL Unit
Meanwhile, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday urged the Centre to take all steps to start COVID vaccine production at the Integrated Vaccine Complex of HLL Biotech Limited in Chengalpattu district. He also assured to provide all assistance required, The New Indian Express reported.
After inspecting the lab, which has been lying idle for many years, Stalin said, “The Centre must immediately allocate funds to begin production here”.
The Integrated Vaccine Complex has a state of the art vaccine manufacturing machinery capable of producing one million doses annually. It was established to produce regular vaccines for Hepatitis-B, rabies and other diseases under the Universal Immunisation Programme of the government of India.
TN Seeks Help from the US
Tamil Nadu has also reached out to US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
On 21 May, the state’s Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan held a zoom call with Jackson and urged him to request US President Joe Biden to expeditiously release an allotment of Astra Zeneca vaccines to Tamil Nadu, among other Indian states. The US has offered to donate 80 million vaccine doses to foreign countries, according to a statement issued by Rainbow Push Coalition.
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