Owaisi slams Centre, says COVID vaccine shortage shows policy paralysis

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the central government alleging that suffering caused by the pandemic is the result of the government's short-sightedness and mismanagement.

Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party chief, Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday said that the policy paralysis by the BJP-led Central Government led to COVID vaccination shortage across the country.

While speaking to ANI, Owaisi said, "Vaccine shortage is only because of PM Narendra Modi. He placed the order of vaccines too late. We don't have transparency. They (Centre) lie to people that after the first dose, take the second dose after 4 weeks. Then it got postponed to 6 weeks, now it's 12-16 weeks. It shows their policy paralysis."

Owaisi blamed the Centre for the shortage of the vaccine in the country.

He said, "It is completely the fault of the Centre that India is facing a severe shortage of Covid vaccine. The Centre is not transparent about the amount of vaccines that has been procured till date from the vaccine manufacturing firms."

Read:Centre extends gap between two doses of COVISHIELD from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks

Further questioning the government about the transparency, Owaisi said, "How many doses of vaccine have been procured till date? How many vaccine doses have been distributed to the states? How many people have been vaccinated till date? How many more vaccine doses will be procured by the government in the future?"

He further said that the government has yet again decided that the second dose of the vaccine be given between 12 to 16 weeks after getting the first dose.

"There is no logical science in delaying the second dose. It was initially told that the second dose must be taken after 4 weeks, then has been increased to 6 weeks and now again the time for taking the second dose has been increased to 12 to 16 weeks after the first dose has been taken," he said.

He further added that this shows the paralyzed vaccination policy of Centre. He mentioned that government lacks vision and further added that making such decisions shows that the government has failed in procuring the required amout of vaccines to the people of this country. He added that as the Central Government has completely failed now the state governments are calling for a global tender for vaccine procurement.

He said, "In a democratic country like India, it is the duty of the Central Government to procure vaccine and then distribute it to the respective states as per their requirements. But now, the states are on their own and are calling for a global tender for procuring vaccines. If so, then what is the Central Government doing?"

He said that the Centre has been taking all the credits as when people have been clapping for them, but when failures of the Centre have been exposed to the people, the same Central Government is just trying to push it over the state governments.

Owaisi alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and blamed the government's short-sightedness and mismanagement for the suffering caused by the pandemic.

Saying that PM Modi Government has failed to save lives of people, Owaisi told ANI: "The Cowin portal is completely unnecessary and is a pain to the common people of India."

Read:Extended gap between 2 doses of Covishield reasonable approach, India must get as many people vaccinated: Fauci

He further said that the Central Government must have implemented the 'walk-in vaccination' policy for a better vaccination drive but failed to implement it as the government does not value the lives of people who are suffering.

He further mentioned that due to the negligence of the government, almost about 4,000 people are losing their lives to Covid-19. He said, "Unless and untill the government is able to vaccinate all the people of the nation, the government cannot save lives of the people. As per the experts, the Indian Government must be able to vaccinate around three hundred million people each month to save lives."

Further speaking, Owaisi said that why is that the Centre has limited the production of a vaccine to just two companies across India when the Central Government itself hold upto 7 public sector undertakings (PSU's) that can manufacture the vaccine.

"People are losing their loved ones each and every day and there are dead bodies floating up in the river Ganga. But the Central Government doesn't show any remorse towards these incidents," Owaisi said.

He added that the Modi Government has lost the sense of compassion and are not at all trying to save the lives of the people of India.

ANI