Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday lashed out at the Centre for exporting 6.5 crore doses of vaccines to 93 nations.
He alleged that they did so to build their image globally instead of making the vaccine available to its own citizens. He said the vaccines could have instead been used to inoculate youth, many of whom have died during the current wave.
“Since the start of this second wave, we have lost a cumulative of 1 lakh people in India as a result of COVID-19. What was hoped from the Central Government was to manage the COVID crisis in India, but they were too busy in managing their image instead. It is important to help nations in this crisis, and it is required, but not at the expense of our own people,” Mr. Sisodia said.
The Deputy Chief Minister said when the government opened up the vaccination drive for the 18-44 years category, the Centre supplied only 5.5 lakh vaccines for the youth while it provided 6.5 crore vaccine for other nations. “This is the sad reality of our Central Government. The Centre has no value for Indians. We could have saved our youth and our community of older people if Centre wasn’t so interested in image management,” Mr. Sisodia said.
He alleged that when States were pleading with the Centre to increase doses, it was too busy providing the vaccines to other nations.
“I request the Central Government to learn something from the International fraternity. Canada, U.S., France and European nations prioritised vaccinating their own people first. Prioritise vaccinating all Indians,” Mr. Sisodia said.
On the issue of vaccines being made available, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan asking for vaccines be supplied in sufficient quantity to the Capital. He said the government has put in place the infrastructure needed to vaccinate over three lakh people a day.
The Chief Minister also pointed that there were continued glitched in the CoWIN app that was leading to most people spending valuable time registering and trying to book an appointment. “A large number of people are not savvy to be able to register themselves. I request you to allow States to develop their separate app or develop mechanisms other than apps to manage vaccinations in their States,” he wrote.
