Stop 'fake stories' on vaccine purchase, TDP to government

Mangalagiri: TDP national official spokesperson K Pattabhi Ram on Thursday demanded the YSRCP government to buy the required vaccines immediately to save people and stop telling fake stories on the permission to be given by the Central government.

Pattabhi Ram asked how Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy could mislead the public saying that there was no approval from the Centre to buy adequate vaccine. The fact was that the Central government has already told the vaccine makers to sell 50 per cent vaccines to itself (the Centre) and the remaining 50 per cent to the states and the private hospitals directly.

Addressing a press conference here, the TDP leader expressed concern that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government was apparently unwilling to spend enough money to buy and give vaccines to all the people in AP. The Chief Minister's greediness and inefficiency led to the unprecedented surge of Covid second wave in the state. Maharashtra already gave 1.7 crore doses to its citizens, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh 1.35 crore each, West Bengal 1.13 crore, Karnataka 1 crore and Kerala 76 lakh. AP could give just 65 lakh only till now, he pointed out.

Pattabhi said that just as in many other respects, AP came to stand in the lowest place in vaccination when compared to other states in the country. When the Covid threat was rising each day, the AP government ordered just 13 lakh doses at just Rs 45 crore. The Chief Minister was not buying vaccines directly from the Serum Institute and the Bharat Biotech since they would not give any commissions, he alleged.

The TDP leader demanded Ramakrishna Reddy to provide proof of alleged restrictions imposed by the Centre on vaccines purchase or the Centre giving permission to AP to buy only 13 lakh doses. There were reports that the Chief Minister and his coterie had struck a secret deal and postponed the crucial vaccine purchase. The state would now buy vaccines only when the Hetero company would be able to supply the Sputnik vaccine which would take considerable time. Till then, the Chief Minister would not bother about the lives of the people and his sole interest was in the commissions, he said.

Pattabhi recalled how the YSRCP regime committed huge irregularities and collected commissions in the Covid test kits procurement in the beginning. Ramakrishna Reddy had no moral right to criticise former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu who had the glowing track record of efficiently rescuing people during calamities like the Hudhud super cyclone and the Uttarakhand flash floods. It was a shame that videos were going viral showing YSRCP MPs Pilli Subhashchandra Bose, Margani Bharat and others talking about how their own government threw up its hands in helplessness in the face of the deadly coronavirus attack.