BJP leader and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday accused the Congress of first running down domestic vaccines and creating “vaccine hesitancy” and then “profiteering” with it in Punjab ruled by it.
Addressing a press conference here, Puri said Covishield that costs Rs 309 per vaccine was sold by private hospitals in Punjab for Rs1560.
This “profiteering” is indulged in Punjab , a state ruled by the Congress ,whose top leaders previously told “lies” and created “vaccine hesitancy” in the country, said the BJP leader.
Puri said the country’s vaccines were being wasted in Rajasthan and being used for profiteering in another Congress-run Punjab.
“The Congress has been fueling vaccine hesitancy. Rahul and Sonia (Gandhi) ji keep saying that we should not export vaccines. Rahul Gandhi asks - where are our children’s vaccines? In Rajasthan they are in the garbage, and in Punjab they are being used for profiteering,” Puri said.
Over the last few days, several vials of Covid-19 were reported being thrown out into the garbage in Rajasthan.
“In Punjab , Covid-19 doses which should be provided free of cost to people were sold at higher prices to private hospitals. A dose of Covishield that was purchased at Rs 309 was been sold at 1,560,” Puri said.
Explaining his point, he said that as per the Punjab government’s officer and in-charge of COVID-19 vaccination, 4.29 lakh doses of Covishield were procured at Rs 13.25 crore, an average amount of Rs 309 per dose.
As many as 1,14,190 Covaxin doses have been procured at Rs 4.70 crore, averaging to Rs 412, he said adding that the state was making a profit out of their own procurement.
“The Centre has distributed 50 per cent of vaccines to states and Union Territories to administer vaccines to people free of cost. States are profiteering on their own procurement. If these figures are true then the real amount of profit is not just Rs 2.40 crore,” Puri said.
The minister also accused the Congress of spreading confusion and disinformation on the Minimum Support Price and ‘Mandi-system” saying this season record MSP procurement of wheat was done and Rs 76,000 crore payment was directly transferred in farmers account of which 32 percent - Rs 26103 crore- was in Punjab.