Ministers within the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government on Monday hit out at the glitches in the CoWIN app as well as the Centre’s tardy vaccine supply to Maharashtra.
State Water Resources Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State president Jayant Patil complained that faults in the CoWIN app were causing hassles for those trying to register for vaccination slots.
While Mr. Patil urged the Centre to overhaul the app, NCP leader and State Minister Nawab Malik said the slow supply of vaccines to the State had led to over 4.5 lakh senior citizens still awaiting their second dose.
Mr. Patil said, “Over 1.3 billion Indians are compelled to register from a single, central app. The technical issues and error being reported daily about the CoWIN app are causing inconvenience to millions of people in the country as well as in the State.” He said that people are getting fed up with the inordinate delays while trying to log in as well as getting a one-time password that will enable them to book a vaccination slot. “These are extremely serious issues at a time when rapid vaccination is being widely touted as a solution to rein in the virus,” the minister said.
‘Panic among citizens’
He added that such inconveniences and delays in smoothly getting a vaccination slot were only aggravating the fraught situation and increasing panic among citizens anxious to get inoculated. Mr. Patil said, “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow each State to either develop their respective apps [to enable registration for vaccination] or at least allow the Maharashtra government to create its own app. The Central government must immediately consider this option.”
Earlier, Congress leader and State Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, too, had demanded that Maharashtra be allowed to create a registration app of its own.
He said, “There is increasing confusion over booking slots in the State due to the technical problems of the CoWIN app. The tech-savvy urbanites have an edge over rural folks in this case. This has resulted in people from the big cities travelling hundreds of kilometres to small talukas to get themselves vaccinated, sparking anger among the rural populace.”
Mr. Thorat said this had resulted in the vaccination programme lagging behind in the rural areas besides causing citizens to move from one district to the other at a time when cases have still not subsided in the State.
Meanwhile, Mr. Malik lashed out at the Centre’s woefully misguided policymaking while rolling out its vaccination programme. He said, “There are massive queues outside vaccination centres in the State, with lakhs of despondent senior citizens gathering to receive their second dose… vaccine stocks are depleted because the Centre cannot provide States with the requisite vaccine supply… if the Modi government does not have the capacity to fulfil its obligations, what was the reason for announcing the third phase of vaccination [18-44 age group] from May 1?”
