West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, 16 January, expressed her dissatisfaction over the inadequate number of COVID-19 vaccines supplied to her state, reported PTI.
While emphasising on free vaccination for all the people within the state, she also said that if need be, West Bengal government is ready to bear the monetary cost for providing the vaccine free of cost in the state.
Reacting to Mamata’s claim on the inadequate supply of vaccines, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said that Banerjee was trying to politicise the vaccination programme ahead of the Assembly polls.
He further went on to say that none of the states have complained on the vaccine supply apart from her.
“She is trying to politicise the issue before the Assembly polls,” Vijayvargiya was quoted as saying by PTI. He also asked the CM to come clean on whether the state or the Centre is providing the vaccines free of cost.
Rubbishing her allegations, Vijayvargiya also claimed that the reason for the vaccines falling short is because the TMC leaders and MLAs are queuing up for vaccination.
In the first phase, Bengal was supposed to receive over 10 lakh vaccines but it has received only 6.89 lakh doses so far, a state government official told PTI.
Saturday's inoculation process took place at over 207 centers across West Bengal. Several Doctors, nurses, hospital support staff, students were addressed by chief minister telephonically at a virtual meet where she said that all the people of West Bengal should get vaccines free of cost as early as possible.
The CM also mentioned that she has requested the central government to supply enough vaccines for all the people of West Bengal along with the frontline workers.
She also thanked the health care workers for their hard work during the pandemic.
Inadequate Supply of COVID-19 Vaccines To West Bengal
Vijayvargiya said that the PM sent free vaccines to West Bengal for corona warriors, health workers and frontline workers but TMC MLAs and goons took the vaccine forcefully, calling the incident a ‘loot’.
The hospital authorities, however, said that no rules were broken as the names of the MLAs were mentioned in the selected list.
(With Inputs from PTI)
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