MADURAI: The Central government has rejected Madurai MP Su Venkatesan’s request to allot vaccines under MP Local Area Development Scheme Fund to inoculate 30,000 youth in Madurai.
In his earlier letter, Venkatesan said that he had planned to enroll the willing youth in Madurai to aid the works of Central and State Governments and to carry the messages related to precautions, Covid protocol and awareness among the public. As part of it, he sought the co-operation of the Central government to procure the vaccines using `1 crore from MPLADS to inoculate around 30,000 youth in the district.
However, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan refused to allot the vaccines citing the ‘Liberalised pricing and accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination strategy’. As per the strategy, he said that the vaccines could be allotted only to States and private hospitals.
Elaborating on the significance of community participation, particularly of the youth, the MP said, “I still could not comprehend the fact that even the private players could directly procure the vaccines but they cannot be allotted even as a special case to the MPLADS fund. What kind of justice is this?” asked Venkatesan, adding that it is disappointing that the letter does not factor in the simple truth that MPLADS fund is also part of Centre’s finances.
He further clarified that he outrightly rejects the vaccination policy and pricing of vaccines by the Union Government. “I, along with my party, Opposition and experts have been consistently demanding free vaccines, exemption from Patent laws, expansion of production through ‘compulsory licensing’, optimum use of `35,000 crore budgetary allocation and use of PM care funds. There has been no action on any of these demands. It is deeply disturbing that the government continues to tread the dangerous path even when lives of people are at grave risk,” he noted.