There is a widespread criticism of the Jagan government from the opposition TDP that it is not putting enough efforts to address the issue of vaccine short supply. Jagan added that the supply of vaccine is completely under Centre’s control and even the oppositions have knowledge that there is a huge shortage in manufacturing the vaccine. Despite knowing the facts, the main opposition TDP is politicising the issue.
“India needs at least 170 crore vaccine doses. So far only 17 crore odd people were given vaccine which is merely 10 percent and Andhra Pradesh needs 7 crore doses but we have received only 73 lakh doses of vaccine. Everyone knows about this situation,” said Jagan.
On the vaccine supply he added even if the state government is ready to give money to the companies, they are not willing to take because of supply issues. “Centre has complete authority on vaccine companies and in fact to the Supreme Court, they informed that based on their recommendation, respective states would get the quota of vaccines,” said the AP CM.
Adding, “The two companies which are manufacturing the vaccines have less capacity. They can only manufacture 7 crore vaccines in a given time and in that 6 crore vaccines are being manufactured by Serum Institute and the remaining one crore is done by Bharat Biotech company. The surprising thing is Bharat Biotech is owned by Chandrababu Naidu’s relative and he has complete information on vaccine manufacturing.”
On TDP chief’s comments, Jagan replied that he feels sad about those remarks. “My government is spending Rs 87,000 crore on welfare schemes and we are ready to spend Rs 1600 crore to get vaccines. There is a propaganda going against my government that it is not being able to provide Rs 45 crore for vaccines. We are living in an environment that is politically charged and the comments of the opposition leader will create unnecessary panic in the public,” said Jagan.
Tags Bharat Biotech Chandrababu Naidu YS Jagan