With several states red-flagging the shortage of COVID-19 vaccination in the country, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's statement on vaccine rationing and administering doses in small numbers every day in the state has stirred a political controversy.
Aam Aadmi party led Delhi Government and opposition Congress in Haryana have hit out at Khattar on Monday over the deliberate delay in administration of vaccines to the people by the State Government.
Commenting on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's remarks over vaccine shortage, Khattar had on Sunday said, “Like other states, should we finish all two lakh doses in a day? We use 50,000-60,000 doses a day. All this... Arvind Kejriwal should understand. But his intention is to indulge in politics and he does that. Nobody should play politics during a pandemic.”
As Khattar's statement suggested that Delhi is giving out vaccines too fast, Kejriwal in a sharp response took to Twitter on Monday saying, “Only vaccine will save people's lives. The sooner the vaccine is administered, the more people will be safe. My aim is not to save the vaccine, but to save people's lives (sic).” His Deputy Manish Sisodia, on the other hand, urged the BJP-ruled states to focus on inoculating their citizens.
While the war of words between the two neighboring Governments continued throughout the day on Monday, the former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of opposition in the State Assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda asked the State Government to intensify the vaccination drive.
Hooda, while addressing a digital press conference said “I don't agree with the current strategy of this government of vaccine rationing and inoculating less number of people every day. The government is not even administering 50000 doses per day as claimed by the Chief Minister.”
“Government records say only around 20,000 doses were administered on Sunday. And in some districts like Hisar, Nuh, Sirsa and Charkhi Dadri, only a few doses were given. At this pace, it will take several months to cover all eligible people in the state,” Hooda said while slamming Khattar over his remarks.
“The vaccination is the only long-term solution to the COVID-19 crisis. There is a need to intensify vaccination drive rather than saving vaccines,” the senior Congress leader added.
Criticizing the Haryana Chief Minister, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala also took to Twitter and said, “Deliberate delay in administering vaccines is also being termed as a strategy. He (CM) says the government has vaccines, but these will be administered to people in small numbers over several days. This is the reason why the people of Haryana are not able to get the vaccines (sic).”
Notably, Haryana Government has floated a global tender to procure one crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine amid its severe shortage across the country.
In fact, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal had on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprize him about the shortage of vaccine stock in the state.
In Delhi, Khattar also sought to play down his statement saying that the vaccination campaign should be conducted in view of the available stock.
The data with state's Health Department suggests that the vaccination drive has slowed down in Haryana in the month of May. Earlier, the state was inoculating more than one lakh people on a daily basis but the number has now declined by half.
“During the last few days, 22274 doses of vaccine were administered on May 30, 25979 on May 29, 53781 on May 28, 55559 on May 27, 44151 on May 26 and 66904 on May 25 in the state,” as per the Department's data.
Since the beginning of the vaccination drive in January, the state has been able to fully vaccinate 9.95 lakh people (3.4 percent of the total population) while 48.83 lakh people (16 percent of the total population) have received their first jab of either Covaxin or Covishield. Till May 30, a total of around 58.78 lakh vaccine jabs have been administered in Haryana, which has an estimated population of 2.9 crore.
In Haryana, Nuh district remains at the bottom in the inoculation drive with a total of 75299 doses administered while the highest of 6.75 lakh jabs have been administered in Gurugram district as on May 30.