HYDERABAD: In a no-holds-barred attack on the BJP-led Central government, TRS working president and IT Minister K T Rama Rao on Sunday slammed it for functioning with “no sense of urgency or clear strategy” despite knowing that vaccination is the only answer to the Covid pandemic.Interacting with netizens during #AskKTR session on Twitter, the Minister made multiple critical comments against Centre’s policy on vaccine procurement.
Rama Rao accused the Central government of waking up to vaccine procurement only in January, 2021. Compared to this, he pointed out that the USA had placed orders for 300 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine way back in May, 2020. “Counting up all vaccine deals per capita, Canada has procured nearly nine doses per person.
While all of this was happening, Govt of India was pushing Vaccine Maitri & promoting vaccine exports from India (sic),” he said.He also accused the Centre of creating a situation in the country wherein all State governments are pitted against each other and against the private hospitals that are ready to procure vaccines from the manufacturers for three times the cost.
Criticising the Centre for not floating a single tender for global procurement of vaccines for the entire country, he said that when states are reaching out to the vaccine manufacturers, they are saying they would rather deal with one entity — the Central government.
During the session, a BJP Delhi leader, Khemchand Sharma used an abusive word against Rao to which the Minister retorted that it is not in his culture to use such words. He pointed out that “andh bhakts” must know that while most nations including Australia, US, UK, Germany, France and China are providing vaccines free of cost to all, India is an unfortunate exception to this global trend and now vaccines are unaffordable for many.
