New Delhi: Senior AAP leader and MLA Atishi gave a statement on Tuesday (June 22) and stated that instead of politicising and giving caustic remarks on Delhi Chief Minister CM Arvind Kejriwal, BJP should focus on mass vaccination of India and Delhi. Hardeep Singh should talk about how the BJP is ensuring regular supply of vaccines in the universal vaccination programme, and not just advertise it.
“Whether it was the centralised model or the decentralised model of vaccination, BJP’s vaccination policy has been failure after failure. When the policy was decentralised, BJP had tied the hands of manufactures and asked them to supply what they wanted, and when it is centralised they are not making sufficient doses available. The centre refused to let us use 45+ vaccines for 18+ and today, they are slyly clarifying through press releases. The centre must stop politicising vaccination; it is their responsibility to safeguard Delhi’s people and the country’s people. Make the vaccines available and not the press conferences, press releases, and advertisements,” she said.
The senior AAP leader further added, “BJP’s leaders and ministers have only one job and this is abusing Arvind Kejriwal and the Delhi government. It is my request to Hardeep Singh that instead of tweeting and holding Press Conferences, work on improving the country’s vaccination policy. Since the time, India’s vaccination policy has started, in every phase, it has been failure after failure after failure.”
MLA Atishi said, “In the first phase, in 2020, when countries all over the world were working on vaccine procurement and manufacturing, BJP’s leaders were running for elections in five states. No plan on how to vaccinate the population of the country was made. In fact, the vaccine that was being manufactured in the country, that vaccine was also exported. Then in the second phase, the Central government realized that they do not have vaccines available. So, they said that we will decentralize the procurement process and states can themselves buy vaccines directly, as many vaccines as they want. When the Delhi Government, and other state governments might have faced this too, said to the Covishield and Covaxin manufacturers, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, that we are ready to pay an advance for 1.5 crore doses, we got to know that the Central Government has tied the hands of these companies. Even in the decentralized model, the Central Government was deciding who can buy how much number of vaccines. Now they’ve started the third phase. In the third phase, they are saying that everything will be provided by us. They are saying they’ll provide everything, still, on June 21st, Delhi was not provided even a single dose of vaccine.”
She said, “Delhi, in the past few days, has had an excess of supply for 45+ category. We have been informing this every day through the Vaccination Bulletin that now, for 45+, we have stocks for more than two months available. In the 45+ segment, Delhi has already vaccinated more than 50 percent of the population.”
She said, “Delhi has many such people who became COVID positive in the past three months that’s why in the remaining 50 percent, many people aren’t even eligible for the vaccine. And also, some people are hesitant to get vaccinated. So, the segment that has already reached a vaccination plateau, the Central Government kept on making vaccines for that segment available. For 18-44, even after asking for it, again and again, very minimal doses of vaccine were provided. There were so many days in between, more than two weeks, in Delhi when there wasn’t a single dose of vaccine available for 18-44. We kept on requesting the Central Government with folded hands, we kept on writing letters, to let us use the vaccines stipulated for the 45+ category, for 18+. Even a few days back we were asking them, that Delhi has so much stock for 45+, to let us use it for the 18-44 category. But the Central Government kept on saying no.”
Senior AAP leader Atishi said, “Today when the Delhi Government has raised their voice, that we’ve not received the vaccine stock, that the Central Government is running a fake vaccination campaign, Mr. Hardeep Singh via a tweet and the Central Government via a Press Release is telling us to use the 45+ stock for everyone. So, when the Delhi Government was, again and again, asking to do the same; when we were writing letters, again and again, to let us use the 45+ vaccine for 18+; then the Central Government disapproved and said a clear no. And now, today, when their mistake is in front of everyone, the Central Government quietly issued a press release saying that the vaccine meant for 45+ can be easily used for 18+ as well.”
She said, “It is our request to the Central government to drop this abusive politics of Press Conferences, Press Releases, and Twitter. The country will not be safe from COVID just by insulting Arvind Kejriwal. The country will be safe from COVID only and only through vaccination. Delhi’s population and the country’s population must be provided vaccines at high speed. The 15 lakh vaccines that you’ve promised Delhi for the month of July, it is the same number of vaccines that were already coming to Delhi every month. If every month only 15 lakh doses of vaccines are received, then it will take more than 1 year to fully vaccinate Delhi. So, it is our request to the Central government, to stop doing politics in the name of vaccines. It is your responsibility to safeguard Delhi’s people and the country’s people against COVID. Make the vaccines available and not the press conferences, press releases, and advertisements.”
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