Amid the ruling Shiv Sena’s severe criticism of the Modi Government for its "ineffective" handling of the Covid-19 crisis at the national level, Prime Minister Narendra Modi — in a telephonic conversation with Uddhav Thackeray — on Saturday commended Maharashtra for its efforts in countering the “second wave” of pandemic in the State.
Hours after the Shiv Sena mouth-piece “Saamana” in its editorial tore into Modi for the sloppy manner in which he handled the Covid-19 crisis in the country and called for practice of “politics-free nationalism”, Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Prime Minister interacted with each other on telephone over the Covid-19 situation in the State.
Simultaneously, Uddhav wrote to the Prime Minister about matters relating to the supply of vaccination, technical glitches on the CoWin App & developing a state-level app for citizens’ vaccination registration.
In tweets put out after Uddhav’s telephonic conversations, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) tweeted, “In a telephonic conversation with CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, the Hon’ble PM @narendramodi sought details about Maharashtra's fight against Covid and commended its efforts in countering the second wave”.
“The CM requested more linkages in the procurement of oxygen for the state, gave information about several measures taken & plans to counter the third wave. The CM thanked the PM for continuous guidance & for accepting various requests made by the State,” the CMO said in another tweet.
Meanwhile, in a letter written to the Prime Minister, Uddhav stated, “The vaccination drive in Maharashtra has been one of the fastest and most efficient in the country with every stock of vaccine that the Union government has kindly supplied to the State at various times in the past few months”.
Among other things, the chief minister – in his letter – spoke about the State Government’s plans to “open up” the vaccination for 18-45 years’ age group by way of procuring the vaccines from its resources, touched up on the technical glitches noticed in the CoWin App and proposed to the Centre about the need for a separate App for States or a CoWin App for each State.
“Seeing the sudden surge of the number of citizens wanting to register nationally, there is a fear about the App malfunctioning or crashing as it did on the day 1 of the (vaccination) registrations,” the chief minister stated.
“We therefore propose either a separate App developed by the states where the data can be shared with the Union government’s Ministry of Health or a Co Win App developed and assigned by the Government of India. This would ensure better interface and experience for the citizens who are really keen to take the vaccine shot,” Uddhav wrote.
Dwelling upon the challenge faced by the state government in getting vaccine supplies, the chief minister said that the state government was willing to procure vaccines stocks in a single procurement if possible so as to safeguard our citizens and to give a boost to the country’s vaccination programme.
“However, the producers do not have enough stocks.... If the states are allowed to procure (vaccines) from other manufacturers as well, we would be able to cover a larger population in a shorter time and help reduce the impact of the possible third wave,” the chief minister said.
Uddhav proposed that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) set up medical framework for the respective FDAs of each starwe, within which the states would be able to cover a larger population in a shorter time and help reduce the impact of the possible third wave in the country.
In a related development, the Shiv Sena’s mouth-piece “Saamana” – in its editorial –stated that with the Covid-19 triggered death of astounding 36,110 people during the past 10 days, India had left most severally affected countries like United States and Brazil behind. “The fear that India aroused in the minds of the governments in other is of immense nature. They have stopped their people visiting India for trade and business. In India, there are restrictions on air and general travel,” the editorial stated
“As a result, India has suffered huge financial losses. If the country is trudging along, it is because of the contributions of Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh and their visionary policies. It is time now for Modi to take steps in the interests of the country. He should begin practising “politics-free nationalism,” the Saamana stated.
Slamming the Centre for continuing with the work the work on the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista project in New Delhi at a time when the country was waging a war against Covid-19, the Saamana editorial stated: “At a time when we are splurging money on the construction of new Parliament and a house for the Prime Minister, it is rather unfortunate and surprising that India is accepting aid from small countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal”.