Coronavirus | CM urges Centre to procure, supply vaccines to the States
Terming the Centre’s coverage on part 3 of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive “inherently unfair”, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to procure and supply the required amount of vaccines to the States for administering them to all teams, together with these aged 18-45.
In his letter, Mr. Palaniswami referred to the Centre’s coverage of giving the States the accountability to procure and administer the vaccines to these in the 18-45 years age group.
“Such a differential price mechanism is inherently unfair since it places a higher financial burden on the States. It is also iniquitous since the State governments have considerably lesser fiscal resources at their command than the Central government,” he mentioned.
As the vaccines would have to be procured by the State governments at pre-determined costs, the charges can be distinctly completely different from what the Centre had been paying, he mentioned.
He identified that some producers had already introduced increased charges for procurement by State governments.
“Further, since a budgetary provision of ₹35,000 crore was made in the Budget Estimates for 2021-22 for the COVID-19 vaccination programme, the States have a legitimate expectation that the Government of India would supply the COVID-19 vaccine [for] phase 3,” the Chief Minister mentioned.
The Centre may additionally discover different sources of vaccine supply, together with imports, to be sure that the roll-out occurs easily and expeditiously throughout the nation in the coming weeks, Mr. Palaniswami added.