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‘Believe the minister’: Chidambaram’s dig at Centre over Covid vaccine, migrants
P Chidambaram's tweets come a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told state governments to reach out to migrants and ensure their well-being.
Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday took potshots at the Centre and said that the people must “believe the ministers” who have denied the alleged shortage of Covid-19 vaccines and also the exodus of migrant workers, who fear a lockdown similar to the previous year by the government to tackle the second wave of the pandemic.
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“There is no crowding at railway stations, says Railway minister. Believe the minister. The long queues shown on TV channels are there only to assist the Railway Police to guard the stations,” P Chidambaram tweeted a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told state governments to reach out to migrants and ensure their well-being. The PM added that the Centre will take all steps to ensure that migrants are vaccinated in the states they reside in.
The leaders’ remarks come at a time when scores of migrants are being seen at bus stops across states and Union territories, especially in Delhi where a six-day lockdown is in place, to return to their home states as they are distressed that the government may announce a lockdown last year to curb the spread of Covid-19 and they might lose their livelihood.
The former finance minister also targeted the Centre over its vaccination drive. “There is no shortage of vaccines, says Health Minister. Believe the minister. There is only a shortage of patients. Central government will issue an advertisement calling for applications from patients who want vaccines,” the Congress leader wrote on the microblogging site.
Though several states have said they are running out of vaccine doses, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan last week assured them of an adequate and unhindered supply of vaccines and told them to shift the focus on large containment now. "We can now focus on bigger containment zones which can be called community quarantine to change the strategy," the minister said as he addressed the state health ministers through a video conference on Saturday.
On Sunday, the government said a total of 138,338,360 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were received by states and UTs, and of these, 125,633,204 doses have already been administered. Another 9,650,000 doses, meanwhile, are in the pipeline.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, too, hit out at the Centre over the shortage of medical infrastructure when Covid-19 cases are witnessing an exponential rise. “Even today they're busy with campaigning. They're laughing from the stages (at rallies). People are crying, screaming for help, seeking oxygen, beds, medicines, and you're going to huge rallies and laughing! How can you?” she told news agency ANI.
On Wednesday, India's Covid-19 tally crossed the 15.6 million-mark with 295,041 cases and 2,023 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.
