Ordered 1.34 cr doses but Centre cleared only 3.5 lakh, says Sisodia
New Delhi: As the Capital's Covid-19 caseload seemingly comes down marginally, the Delhi government has now alleged that the Centre has chosen to block orders for vaccine doses it had placed in advance at the end of April, with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia saying that the Centre had capped Delhi's doses for May at 3.5 lakh even though the government had ordered 1.34 crore doses from the manufacturers.
Releasing the letters sent to the manufacturers by the Delhi government on April 26 for the Covishield and Covaxin doses — 1.34 crore in total for the month of May, the Deputy CM said that the Centre was too busy selling the vaccines outside the country before ensuring there was enough for those at home. The BJP is practising politics of lies and falsely accusing the Delhi government of ordering 5.5 lakh vaccine doses only, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sisodia said.
The Deputy CM said, "Central government is only interested in exporting vaccine to foreign nations. It's time for the Central government to put an end to this politics of lies and deception and understand that we are in a full-fledged crisis. They need to open their eyes to all the suffering and pain people of this nation are facing because of this deadly virus."
He said that after the Centre decided in April that states can directly place orders with vaccine manufacturers, the Arvind Kejriwal government ordered 1.34 crore doses for the people in the 18-44 age group.
"Later, the central government in a letter told us that we can have only around 3.5 lakh doses in May," he claimed.
Sisodia lashed out at the BJP, saying its government was selling vaccines abroad when people were dying in the country.
He charged the BJP government with holding the Kumbh Mela and conducting assembly polls amid the second wave of COVID-19 and alleged that it was more interested in selling vaccines abroad instead of providing them to state governments.
Sisodia said, "BJP is shamelessly lying to everyone, and we don't understand the reason behind such lies because Central government ultimately decides how many vaccines will be distributed to States and then to nations abroad. All these papers from vaccine companies and Central government itself are proof that the Central Government has completely overlooked the crisis at hand, and instead exported vaccines to other nations. If 6.5 lakh doses had been administered to the people of our nation, we would have been able to save lives of many Indians."
According to a vaccination bulletin released by the Delhi government on Monday, the city had around 2.74 lakh doses of vaccines left for those between the ages of 18 and 44 and a little over 4.6 lakh doses for those above 45, healthcare workers, and frontline workers.
