Politics has erupted over the Centre’s vaccination drive with the Congress accusing the government of manufacturing a ‘PR event’ after India reported a slump in inoculation figures a day after recording a high of 88 lakh jabs.
The ruling BJP has pointed that opposition-ruled states being laggard in vaccinations. India achieved a “historic milestone” of administering 88.09 lakh vaccine doses in a single day on June 21, but the numbers dipped to over 53.4 lakh on Tuesday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the country would not be safe till large-scale vaccination are not done every day. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said vaccination dropped by 40 per cent on Tuesday and the country needed to vaccinate at least 80-90 lakh people daily to vaccinate all citizens by December. Congress also pointed to low vaccination numbers in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
The remarks saw a sharp response from BJP President JP Nadda who said the country had crossed 50 lakh vaccinations both on Tuesday and Wednesday, “much to the dislike of the Congress Party”. A senior government official told News18 that over 60 lakh daily vaccination figures were expected to continue till June 30 and the number would gradually increase to one crore vaccinations by July-end.
“The country will hit 30 crore total vaccinations tomorrow and the figure will cross 50 crore total jabs by the end of July,” the senior government official said.
Over 65 lakh people are expected to be vaccinated on Wednesday. Government officials have accused opposition-ruled states like Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand and Punjab for pulling down the inocultation numbers as the states reported only a lakh daily vaccinations. “These states need to up their game,” a senior official said.
“Congress-ruled Rajasthan has continued to vaccinate around 3.5 lakh to four lakh people daily, indicating that adequate vaccine supplies are in place for increasing vaccination numbers in all states,” an official claimed. Meanwhile, a BJP functionary told News18 that vaccination was low on June 20 as vaccine centres are shut on Sundays.
“Is Congress questioning the record of its own states like Punjab, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh by attacking the overall vaccination numbers?” a BJP functionary asked. The opposition heavily criticised Madhya Pradesh after the state’s vaccination numbers dipped on Tuesday after reporting a record 16 lakh jabs on Monday. The state however has reported over 11 lakh jabs on Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh meanwhile reported 7.68 lakh jabs on Monday, 8.21 lakh on Tuesday and over seven lakh on Wednesday.
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