Stop blaming Oppn, focus on vaccination drive: TDP to government

Mangalagiri: TDP executive secretary Buchi Ramprasad on Monday urged Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to stop targeting Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu and start focusing his government's attention on vaccinating people of the State.

Ramprasad said that sheer negligence of the ruling YSRCP leaders is the reason for the deep crisis in the AP vaccination programme. It was shameful on the part of the AP Ministers to ask the former Chief Minister for getting the vaccines supply for the State, he said. Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, the TDP leader demanded the government to explain what it did with Rs 8,000 crore provided by the Central government. Can't the Chief Minister spend Rs 1,600 crore for administering vaccines to the people in this critical time? The AP government is buying just 13 lakh doses by spending just Rs 45 crore. This would not be sufficient to meet the immediate demand in the State.

Ramprasad recalled how the Centre had asked all the States to start the vaccination programme even for the 18 to 45 years people right from May 1. The AP regime is not following these guidelines and it was saying vaccines would be given only to those above 45 years age. Vaccination came to a halt at the private hospitals from May 1 itself. There were no vaccines at the primary health centres of the government also. The TDP leader said that AP ordered for only 13 lakh vaccine doses at a time when Maharashtra bought 12 crore doses, Kerala 1.7 crore, Rajasthan 3.75 crore, Odisha 3 crore and Delhi 70 lakh. The CM's lack of interest in vaccination was exposed at the time the Cabinet meeting itself when the epidemic was included as the last item on the agenda. The United States of America completed vaccination for 55 per cent of the population. London went for lockdown till all people get vaccinated.

Ramprasad deplored that the AP rulers have made it a hobby to ridicule the Opposition TDP leaders but show least interest in saving people's lives. False cases were being filed only to divert attention of public from multiple failures of the government, he alleged.