It's Centre vs state in Rajasthan over COVID-19 vaccine supply

A nurse readies a Covishield shot. Pic/Ashish Raje

The Rajasthan and Central governments seem to be engaged in a new tussle regarding the supply and availability of the Covid-19 vaccines in the state. State Health Minister Raghu Sharma, on Tuesday morning, delivered a shock to everybody by claiming that the availability of vaccination doses is limited in the state and that may last only for a day or two. He also urged the Centre to supply the fresh consignment of doses expressing fear that the work may be stopped otherwise. However, a few hours later, the Centre stepped in with the clarification that it had supplied 37.71 lakh doses to Rajasthan and out of which only 24.28 lakh doses have been used till Monday.

"There have been some news reports suggesting impending shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses in Rajasthan. The factual position is that there is no shortage of Covid-19 vaccine with the state at present. Rajasthan has been supplied 37.61 lakh doses and has consumed only 24.28 lakh doses till Monday night. The Central government is regularly monitoring availability of vaccine supply in all the states and UTs, and providing the doses as per their requirement and consumption pattern," said an official from the central government.

Interestingly, at 7.30 p.m., the state medical department said: "A total of 31.45 lakh doses have been received from the Centre. Out of these, 23.26 lakh were used while 1.62 lakh medicines have been damaged. A total of 2.15 lakh doses have been given to the Army and now there are only 4.4 lakh doses of medicines left in the stock." A few minutes later, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot shot seven tweets at one go claiming that the data of the Union Health Ministry is completely wrong. "I will appeal to Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan to instruct his officials to provide vaccines soon and not to give false information about Rajasthan."

The Chief Minister further said, "As being said that the Centre will be able to provide the vaccines in 5-7 days, this can cause problems in vaccination drive again. In view of this uncertainty, some districts have been forced to discontinue the administering of the first dose of vaccination at the PHC/CHC level." Meanwhile, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat also jumped into the 'controversy'. "Rahul-Gandhieization of Congress! Rajasthan Govt issues misleading statements on shortage of vaccine in the state. What next? Are they going to ask for Ministry of Vaccination now?," he tweeted.

In his earlier tweet shot before Gehlot's tweet, he said, "Following the footsteps of its leader Rahul Gandhi, the Rajasthan government has launched a campaign to spread confusion over the availability of Covid vaccine this time. I pray to Lord Ram for his failure once again." Meanwhile, one question which remains unanswered amid this controversy is that "Where did the state's 6 lakh vaccines go as the Centre claimed that it gave 37.71 lakh doses to the state while the state claimed that they only got 31.45 lakh doses.

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