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BJP arms party MPs with factsheet on Covid response ahead of assembly polls
Systemic deficiencies resulted in shortfall of oxygen, essential drugs and hospital beds across several states during the 2nd wave of Covid pandemic and the Opposition accused the Centre of being unprepared and focused on elections in Bengal instead of containing the virus.
Expecting the Centre’s handling of the second wave of the Covid pandemic to become a major poll issue in the 2022 state assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has armed its lawmakers with a 34-page booklet, detailing the actions that were taken by the Union government during the crisis.
The booklet, drafted by the union ministry of health and family welfare was handed out to the MPs at the BJP’s parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday with the instruction to publicise its contents widely to “counter” the Opposition’s charges against the government’s performance.
A party functionary said the details in the booklet will help the lawmakers answer the questions on the government’s response when the party hits the ground for electioneering in states such Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, where the impact of the pandemic is expected to be a major poll issue. Apart from these states, elections will also be held in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab next year.
Systemic deficiencies exposed during the pandemic resulted in shortfall of oxygen, essential drugs and hospital beds across several states; the Opposition has accused the union government of being unprepared and for focusing on elections in West Bengal instead of containing the spread of the virus that took many lives in the second wave in April and May.
The document also lists the quantities of essential medicines such as Remdesivir, Amphotericin B, medical oxygen and the grants that were supplied to each state and UT. As per the document, ₹1,113 crore was sanctioned to 36 states and UTs in the financial year 2019-20 under the national health mission for management and containment of the pandemic while ₹8,257 crore was sanctioned under the emergency response and health system preparedness package in the financial year 2020-21.
Referring to the challenges faced during the second wave by the government, the document says, “Due to ongoing field activities in terms of increased testing, surveillance, clinical management and other activities for more than one year, the health system witnessed fatigue.…”
It also says that the Health systems in peri- urban and rural areas were strained due to sudden surge in cases amid limited capacity of beds, testing, drugs, oxygen and logistics.
Since the Opposition has also questioned the country’s vaccination policy, the booklet has an annexure that details how the vaccination drive has been carried out across India and how it compares to other nations.
It says, by July 31, India has administered 456 million doses of the vaccine, of which 120.3 million were administered in July alone. In the corresponding time, UK has administered 84 million doses, the US 343 million doses and Brazil 137 million doses, the booklet says.
