Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said the number of COVID-19 doses available in the state is insufficient to carry on vaccination and due to this, inoculation will have to be stopped in many districts.
In a series of tweets, the Congress leader took an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wondered how is it possible to organise 'Tika Utsav' from April 11 to 14 when many states are reeling under vaccine crisis. He also claimed that the statements of Home Minister Amit Shah and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad regarding 'no vaccine shortage' in the states is mere eyewash.
Gehlot also wrote a letter to PM Modi requesting him to provide at least 30 lakh doses of Covid vaccine to the state. In the letter, the Chief Minister said that the state is aiming to increase the pace of vaccination to 5 lakh beneficiaries each day, but the vaccine stock left will last for only two more days.
He also said that the Centre's claim of no shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the country is wrong and demanded that a status report on the availability of doses be made public.
READ: COVID vaccine stock to finish in two days, provide at least 30 lakh doses: Gehlot to PM
"Rajasthan leads among all states in vaccination of people above 60 years of age. Rajasthan has received 1,07,40,860 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the central government till April 6. Of these, 2,15,180 vaccines have been made available to the army; 91,55,370 dosages have been used till April 8. About 4,34,888 dosages were wasted, which is less than half of the 10 per cent limit allowed by the central government, Gehlot said in a statement.
The chief minister said that after today's vaccination, there are only about five lakh vaccine doses left in the state which are insufficient for further vaccination.
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The central government has proposed the next consignment of 3.83 lakh doses of vaccine on April 12. Due to this, vaccination work will have to be stopped in many districts in Rajasthan tomorrow, Gehlot said.
He said in such a situation, the central government should clearly state publicly about the lack of vaccines.
"No politics is being done in the work of vaccination, but it is clear from the facts that there is a shortage of vaccines in many states. The central government should clarify the status of vaccine doses in public," the chief minister said. Gehlot said that Rajasthan has been a pioneer in coronavirus management and vaccination since the beginning.
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With PTI inputs
