Congress: Why burden states, where is PM CARES money?

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh

The opposition parties have criticised the Centre's policy for the next phase of vaccination starting May 1 when everyone aged above 18 will be allowed to take the shots. The Congress on Tuesday alleged the changes will worsen the inequality between states as well as between poor and rich Indians, and demanded uniform pricing for the vaccines at all health facilities.

Questioning the pricing modalities under the new policy, which allows manufacturers to fix the prices of their shots, the Congress said the plan was "regressive, inequitable and anti-competitive". The party also said the new policy would put additional burden on cash-strapped states. The Centre on Monday said private hospitals and states will be able to buy doses from manufacturers.

It also said the vaccine manufacturers would be free to supply 50 percent doses to state governments and in the open market. Chidambaram claimed the Union government has finally acknowledged the problem of vaccine shortage and other deficiencies in the current policy. "While we welcome the positive changes made to the policy...the modified vaccine policy is, in crucial respects, regressive and inequitable," he said.

"States already way down by shrinking GST revenues, lower tax devolution, reduced grants-in-aid and increased borrowing would've to bear this additional burden. Meanwhile, nobody knows where the thousands of crores of rupees collected under PM CARES are being deployed."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said PM Narendra Modi has allowed open market sales of vaccines after shipments made by him to foreign shores have depleted stocks in India.

The TMC supremo said the PM had exported vaccines to other countries to boost his image while states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and West Bengal have struggled to get doses they required to combat the pandemic.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever