Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to provide “free vaccines for beneficiaries of all age groups”. He also requested the Prime Minister to “give freedom to define priorities for vaccination coverage”.
On the issue of States procuring vaccines on their own, Mr. Soren said that it “stands against the principle of cooperative federalism”.
“It is requested to provide to the State free vaccines for beneficiaries of all age groups and also give us freedom to define priorities for vaccination coverage”, Mr. Soren wrote in his two-page letter dated May 31, 2021. “This would help in achieving the target of full vaccination in a timely manner which would go a long way in ensuring effective tackling of the anticipated 3rd wave. The State and people of Jharkhand shall be ever grateful for your kind support under such difficult times”.
Financial burden
“The financial burden on the State for vaccination of the age cohort of 18-44 is likely to be more that ₹1,100 crore, considering 1.57 crore eligible beneficiaries. With vaccine being available for age cohort of 12-18 years and below, the mentioned financial burden will further increase by around ₹1,000 crore. It will be extremely difficult to spare as much resources from the resources pool of the State which is already stressed during COVID times.
“This is probably for the first instance in the history of independent India that the States have been mandated to procure vaccines on their own. Such a mandate, under the challenging and unprecedented circumstances where the entire nation is struggling for over a year, stands against the principle of cooperative federalism,” Mr. Soren said.
The Jharkhand Chief Minister further said that “it is now well established that timely and full vaccination of all the eligible beneficiaries is the only sustainable measure against the spread of COVID-19 infection and to control mortality on account of it. Better preparedness and response to a possible third wave in the near future will hinge on the extent of vaccination coverage across the country. The State of Jharkhand is taking all possible measures to ensure maximum coverage in the least possible time-frame.”
‘Limited vaccine supply’
Mr. Soren also stated the difficulties in procuring vaccines.
“Jharkhand is putting all efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccine directly from the available manufacturers for the age cohort of 18 to 44 years. However, the supplies against the orders placed continue to remain extremely limited and it ultimately depends on the allocations made by the Central government. On account of scarce supplies, the overall pace of vaccination is not as desired and defeats the very purpose of vaccination drive for this age cohort,” he said.
The Jharkhand CM further expressed concern over higher rates of vaccines for States.
‘Higher rates’
“Jharkhand, like other States, has always received vaccines free of cost from the Central government for pulse polio and routine immunisation. In this regard, it is pertinent to note that the rates specified by the Central government for procurement of vaccines by the State for the age cohort of 18 to 44 years are significantly higher than the rates at which vaccine is being procured by the Central government for the beneficiaries in the age cohort of 45 years and above,” he said.
“This dichotomy will not stand the scrutiny of reasonable classification under the fundamental principles of the Constitution of India,” Mr. Soren said.
“The inherent diversity of India creates various peculiarities specific to the States concerned. Every State has its own high-risk groups depending on the geographical, cultural and traditional heterogeneity. As such, a common framework defined by the Central government with regard to prioritising beneficiaries across the country is not desirable,” Mr. Soren stated in his letter.
Jharkhand’s COVID-19 tally registered on Monday as 3,36,943 with 703 more people testing positive for the infection while 19 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,977.
Earlier hours after Mr. Modi had spoken to Mr. Soren on COVID-19 situation on May 6, Mr. Soren tweeted to say the Prime Minister did not listen to him during the conversation over the phone and that it was just a monologue from him.
“Today, respected Prime Minister called. He only spoke his ‘mann ki baat’. It would have been better if he had talked about something fruitful and listened too”, tweeted Mr. Soren in Hindi which later sparked sharp reaction from State BJP leaders.
