New Delhi: The Congress party on Wednesday made a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis in the country.
It alleged that India has been reduced to "Vaccine Beggar" from being the "Vaccine Leader."
The Opposition party also asserted that the strengthening of health infrastructure in the country is the need of the hour.
While addressing a press conference, Ajay Maken, Congress General Secretary alleged that rather than testing COVID positive patients, the government is testing people’s patience as various states are witnessing a shortage of hospital beds, medical oxygen and even life-saving medicines.
The statement comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation, late on Tuesday, regarding the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country.
"Prime Minister’s address was nothing but empty rhetoric. States and common people were expecting relief from the Prime Minister but as always, 18 minutes of PM speech disappointed everyone. It had no direction, no empathy for the poor and those affected by the pandemic were left high and dry," Maken said.
He mentioned that during the imposition of nationwide lockdown in the year 2020, the government had argued that it needed time to expand the country’s healthcare capacity. The Congress leader said that it is high time to effectively analyse the improvements "if any", made in this direction.
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Maken alleged, "One man Modi-government was ill-prepared and busy in elections. In the last few months, 6.5 crore doses of COVID vaccines, 11 lakh injections of Remdesivir, 9300 MT of oxygen and 2 crore testing kits (every month) have been exported."
On the issue of shortage of oxygen, Congress claimed that on April 15 2021, the Government of India said that as of date, India’s production capacity of oxygen was 7127 MT per day while on April 12, the medical oxygen consumption was 3842 MT per day.
It has been estimated that the medical oxygen requirement may go up to 4,500 to 5,500 MT per day.
"Early in the pandemic, it became clear that oxygen would be one of the most precious commodities in the battle against the virus.
Yet, it took the Narendra Modi government eight months to invite bids for onsite oxygen generation plants," Maken said.
He further added, "The problem is not the availability as such, but that of logistics and management. We need cryogenic tankers to transport oxygen. Hospitals do not have adequate storage capacity. It took 15 months for the government to change rules and allow cryogenic tankers to carry Nitrogen and oxygen, and a week later they issued guidelines for unrestricted movement of tankers. Railways have been roped in now for transportation of oxygen."
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Congress Party demanded the central government to fast track the construction of PSA units, increase the unhindered transportation capacity of oxygen, and augment the hospital oxygen storage capacity so that we are immediately able to deliver 5500 MT of medical oxygen per day.
Earlier on Wednesday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also tweeted over the matter, "Shameful state of affairs. One of the largest oxygen-producing countries in the world is being forced to import as its leadership fails to deliver oxygen to its own despairing citizens. Why did they double export in the middle of the pandemic in 2020? DO INDIAN LIVES NOT MATTER?"
Maken also reiterated Congress' demand for 'One nation, One Price' of the vaccine against COVID-19 after the Serum institute announced that states to get Covishield at Rs 400 while the price for the Center stays at Rs 150.
Congress senior leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the central government by calling the move "atrocious".
He said, "This is not cooperative federalism. This will bleed dry the already reeling state finances."
On the matter of shortage of Remdesivir, Congress alleged that stockists and traders have been hoarding large quantities and selling them at exorbitant prices.
It also accused various BJP leaders of hoarding and black marketing of Remdesivir.
Stating the party's demand, Maken said, "Centre must use the NIA and ED against those leaders and traders who are encouraging this black market. Ministry of Health along with ICMR and other experts must give a clarification on the efficacy of Remdesivir and other alternatives. Ministry of Chemicals must make public the exact quantity of Remdesivir with each manufacturer/trader. The government must explain why did it allow export and slowing of production."
In addition to this, Congress appealed to the government to spend more resources and increase the RT-PCR testing capacity and bring it within the reach of common people.
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