Andhra Pradesh government wrongly blaming Centre, alleged TDP

Mangalagiri: TDP national spokesman K Pattabhi Ram on Friday expressed surprise that the YSRCP government was still trying to pass the blame to the Centre on the issue of Andhra Pradesh not getting adequate vaccine to administer to its people.

Pattabhi Ram said it was the AP government which failed to place advance orders directly to the vaccine makers while other states took special prior care in this matter. Now, the YSRCP regime was trying to make the people believe that the Centre did not give required permission to it to procure the vaccine.

Addressing a press conference here, the TDP leader said that the YSRCP leaders and Its media were making all efforts to blame the Centre and escape from their responsibility by publishing false reports and making wrong statements. On Friday, they showed a letter written by the Centre to AP and tried to misinterpret it.

But the fact was that the Centre clearly urged the Jagan Reddy regime to refer to the April 29 letter written by the Union health and family welfare secretary to all states. At that time itself, the Centre clarified that it liberalised vaccine procurement and gave flexibility to the states to buy vaccine directly from manufacturers.

Pattabhi Ram demanded an explanation from the Chief Minister and health department principal secretary Anil Kumar Singhal whether they did not know about the Centre's clarifications on vaccine purchase.

The Centre has liberalised vaccine procurement in order to help the states to speed up vaccination from May 1. Consequently, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and all other states took immediate steps and placed prior orders to reserve their vaccine. Now, AP was left without any source to purchase vaccine to meet the current demand.

The TDP leader demanded the Chief Minister to resign and step aside if he had no interest to save the lives of the common people. It was criminal negligence on the part of the AP government to place an order for just 13 lakh doses when Karnataka ordered 1 crore doses and Tamil Nadu 1.5 crore doses. Unfortunately, Anil Kumar Singhal was now saying that they were placing orders for cryogenic oxygen tankers which should have been done much in advance.

He said oxygen cylinders were being sold in black market at Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. The YSRCP leaders were using even the Covid crisis to squeeze and torture the public. Even the poor families were spending high amounts beyond their capacity to save their family members and parents from the dreaded virus, he said.

The TDP leader said the Centre released Rs 2,876 core to AP towards revenue deficit during April and May but the Jagan regime was unwilling to spend enough funds for the people/s vaccination.