PM made it clear, vaccination is free for all: Devendra Fadnavis

Amid prevailing confusion in the state with ministers giving different statements about vaccination opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis insisted that the Centre has made provision to inoculate all eligible beneficiaries for free of costDevendra Fadnavis BJP leaderState minister and NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik on Sunday said the government has decided that the vaccination of the 1845 age group which starts on May 1 will be free He said the state government would buy required doses from the national and international markets Environment minister and chief ministerrsquos son Aaditya Thackeray endorsed his statement and then retracted it later saying that the statersquos vaccination policy wasnrsquot decided yetFadnavis after inaugurating a COVID centre in Mumbai on Monday said ldquoThe Maha Vikas Aghadi is completely confused on the vaccination drive The ministers are discussing with the media what they should be talking about in the cabinet meeting They are engaged in oneupmanship by making all kinds of statementsrdquoldquoPrime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear on Sunday itself that all the citizens in the country will get free vaccination At the same time if some states want this process to be accelerated they have been given liberty to purchase directly from the companiesrdquo he saidCongress minister Balasaheb Thorat also said that ministers should not try to seek credit by making statements on vaccination when the matter was still being discussed ldquoAs far as the Congress is concerned our only demand is free vaccination for all Our party president Sonia Gandhi has made it very clearrdquo he addedAccording to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar a committee under chief secretary has been asked to decide on the purchase of vaccines and policy for the state He had on Saturday said that the state was considering charging the people who can afford itThe former CM also dismissed the MVA leadersrsquo allegations of short supply of medicines and oxygen from the Centre ldquoThose having a habit of blaming the government of India every day should try to behave sensibly at least during a pandemic Maharashtra has received the highest quantity of 435 lakh remdesivir and 1750 metric tonne of oxygen mdash which is double than what any other state got Over 1100 additional ventilators have been allotted to Maharashtrardquo he saidCongress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the state hadnrsquot been receiving 1750 MT oxygen daily as claimed by Fadnavis ldquoThe MVA government had envisaged the need of 25000 MT oxygen for 15 days from April 16 to April 30 Out of which 17500 MT was Maharashtrarsquos capacity The central government was to give 7500 MT 500 MTday But we are getting 345 MTday Logistic is a problem for the rest of the supplyrdquo he said