Ruia deaths: Jagan announces ₹10 lakh ex gratia

Expressing shock over the demise of 11 sufferers at RUIA Hospital, Tirupati, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has ordered that an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh be paid to the kin of the sufferers who died reportedly owing to insufficient provide of oxygen.

During the weekly Spandana evaluate with Collectors, Mr. Jagan stated in an emotional tone, “These are difficult times and even on Monday, we had to air lift six empty oxygen tankers to Odisha and get them filled and get them back to Gannavaram. These are the times we are living in and even while we are putting consolidated efforts, some things are not in our hands. These are testing times and I request the Collectors not to get disheartened and be more vigilant and be humane. We should address these issues in much more sympathetic manner.”

The Chief Minister revealed that solely about 10% of individuals within the county have been vaccinated. “The production capacity of Serum Institute of India is about 6 crore doses for a month and Bharat Biotech capacity is about one crore doses per month. Of the targeted 172 crore doses across the country, we have barely managed to vaccinate 17 crore. This is the scenario we are facing and it is unfortunate that the Opposition had chosen to criticise our government over vaccination when they knew that the whole vaccination is controlled by the Central government,” Mr. Jagan stated.

Hitting out strongly towards the Opposition and a piece of the media, the Chief Minister stated that it was unlucky that opposition had chosen to criticise the federal government. “Everyone knew we have spent over ₹85,000 crore on welfare alone . Can’t we spend just ₹1,600 crore to buy vaccine? Is not unfair on the Opposition parties to target us? I can proudly say that we are best among States providing quality medical treatment to COVID patients,” Mr. Jagan stated asking the Collectors to concentrate on bettering the standard of 104 providers.