K'taka HC pulls up govt on 'mishandling' vaccines; Union Minister asks 'should we hang ourselves'

The High Court demanded a road map from the Karnataka government on how it intends to administer the second dose to 26 lakh beneficiaries above 45 years of age when the state only has one-third of the required number of doses of the vaccines available.

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday slammed the state government for "mishandling" the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Shortly after the high court's jibe, Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who hails from Karnataka, asked whether people in the government should hang themselves for their failure to produce enough vaccines.

Hearing a Suo Moto case, the bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar questioned the state government, ''Is this the way you are going to implement the vaccination programme? You have not even covered 1 per cent of the population."

"We are worried about the implementation of court orders... lives of citizens," the court said.

Further grilling the state government, the bench said, "Last order says for 26 lakh people, the second dose is overdue. How and when are you going to give it? Where's your road map?... We are asking you a simple question. If you can't give or don't want to give, we will record that."

Government is sincere: Gowda

Reacting to this, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers D V Sadananda Gowda asked reporters whether people in the government should hang themselves for their failure to produce vaccines as was directed by the government.

"The court has with good intention said everyone in the country should get vaccinated. I want to ask you, if the court says tomorrow that you have to give this much (of vaccine), if it has not been produced yet, should we hang ourselves?" Gowda told reporters here.

Replying to queries on the shortage of vaccines, he stressed on the plan of action of the government and said its decisions are not guided by any political gain or by any other reason. Gowda said the government has been doing its job sincerely and honestly during which time some shortcomings have surfaced.

"Practically, certain things which are beyond our control, can we manage it?," Gowda sought to know. He, however, clarified that the government has been doing its best to ensure that in a day or two, things improve and people get vaccinated.

Judges aren't all-knowing: C T Ravi

BJP national general secretary C T Ravi, who was present with Gowda, claimed that things would have been worse if arrangements had not been made well in time.

"If proper arrangements were not made well in advance then there would have been fatalities 10 times or 100 times more," Ravi said. He said oxygen supply has been increased from 300 metric tonnes to 1,500 tonnes due to systematic preparation.

"But our preparations failed because of the unimaginable spread of COVID-19," Ravi told reporters.

Regarding courts pulling up the government on the pandemic, Ravi said, "Judges are not all-knowing (Sarvajna). Whatever is available with us, based on that the technical advisory committee will recommend how much (vaccine) has to be distributed. Based on their report, we will take a decision."

With the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in the state, which is reporting 40,000 to 50,000 cases daily, the demand for vaccines has grown manifold. According to the Karnataka government officials, the state has placed an order of three crore vaccines and the money has already been paid to two vaccine manufacturers. However, only seven lakh doses have arrived in the state. The panicked citizens have been queuing up at the vaccination centres for inoculation only to be turned down.

With inputs from PTI