A day after Union Minister Hardeep Puri maintained that Punjab Government’s act of “profiteering from vaccine” is shameful, Congress’ Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu on Sunday said that there’s no question of profiteering by the state from supply of vaccines “when the whole amount paid by a few private hospitals has been deposited in the State Vaccination Fund for purchase of vaccines for vaccinating the citizens of the state free of cost”.
Bittu said that the State Government is already committed to free vaccination to all the citizens of Punjab.
“The real issue for which the Central Government is squarely responsible is the woefully inadequate supply of vaccines, which the state is not getting even after placing order with the SII, Pune,” said Bittu asking why did the BJP fail to ensure supply of adequate vaccines to the country?
He said that all vaccine supplies, whether from domestic or foreign suppliers, are totally being controlled by the Union Government, and it was a matter of great shame that the Union Government failed to negotiate supplies of vaccines with both domestic and foreign manufacturers in 2020. “The manufacturing capacity of SII and Covaxin should also have been expanded in a big way; all this, despite the fact that India is a Pharma hub of the entire world,” alleged Bittu.
“It again is a matter of shame that only 4.29 lakhs doses of Covishield received so far despite the fact that the state placed an order for 30 lakh Covishield vaccine doses with SII as soon as the Centre announced its new vaccine policy. Apart from paying Rs 18.27 crore for 5.43 lakh vaccine doses, Punjab Government has paid Rs 22.88 crore as advance for procurement of 6.88 lakh vaccine doses, which are yet to be received,” he pointed out.