Firhad blames PM for dearth of jabs in state

Kolkata: Firhad Hakim, chairman of Board of Administrators, KMC, came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for shortage in supply of vaccines and reiterated that the civic body has already developed infrastructure for mass vaccination in the city.

"The Prime Minister is doing politics over vaccination and has not yet come up with a proper policy. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written for the supply of three crore vaccines but we are getting only one lakh/ two lakh once or twice a week. It seems that the Centre is doing us a favour by sending them. The situation has been such that we are only providing second doses of vaccine for the common people and have been compelled to stop the first dose even for those beyond the 45 age group. It is the Prime Minister who should be held responsible for the huge number of Covid fatalities across the country," Hakim said.

There were a number of phone calls from senior citizens at the Talk to KMC programme on Saturday expressing their concern about being deprived of the first dose of vaccine. Hakim pleaded helplessness informing that Covishield supply is scanty while Covaxin supply has almost stopped. "I have heard that Bharat Biotech has stopped production of Covaxin as the Centre has not paid them for their earlier production," Hakim said.

He added that KMC has already equipped auditoriums like Ahindra Mancha at Chetla, Uttam Mancha at Hazra and Star Theatre at Hatibagan for mass vaccination. "I also have plans of holding camps in localities for vaccination but where is the supply?" he questioned.