AAP govt ordered 1.34 crore COVID jabs, but Centre cleared only 3.5 lakh in May: Manish Sisodia
NEW DELHI: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday claimed the BJP government at the Centre has allowed only 3.5 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine for the national capital in May even though the AAP dispensation had placed orders for 1.34 crore doses with manufacturers.
The BJP is practising politics of "lies and deception" and falsely accusing the Delhi government of ordering 5.5 lakh vaccine doses only, he charged.
Sisodia who is a senior leader of ruling AAP in Delhi attacked the Centre, hours after BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Kejriwal government was busy in advertising instead of pushing the vaccination programme in time.
The two parties have now indulged in a war of words over vaccine availability.
Sisodia that after the Centre decided in April that states can directly tie up with vaccine manufacturers, the Arvind Kejriwal government ordered 1.34 crore doses to vaccinate people in the 18-44 age group in the city.
"Later, the central government in a letter told us that we can have only around 3.5 lakh doses in May," he claimed showing letters of the Delhi government to vaccine manufacturers and that from Union Health Ministry to it.
Sisodia lashed out at the BJP, saying its government was selling vaccines abroad when people were dying in the country.
He charged the BJP government with holding Kumbh Mela and conducting assembly polls amid the second wave of COVID-19 and alleged that it was more interested in selling vaccines abroad instead of providing it to state governments.
Patra said that Kejriwal had claimed on April 26 that his government would order 1.34 crore vaccines, which is worth nearly Rs 1,400 crore.
"Today, he's saying he has nothing. Only 8.93 per cent people over 45 years have got their second dose in Delhi. Only 48.03 per cent people over 60 years have received their first dose. Only 17 per cent people over 60 years have received second dose," he said.
Sisodia hit back at the BJP, saying vaccines are the need of the hour, not "sly politics" of its government based on "lies and deception".
"At a time when the whole nation was suffering from COVID-19, the central government turned a blind eye to the needs of the people of our nation, and exported 6.5 crore doses of vaccine to countries abroad," he said in a digital press briefing. The Delhi government wrote letters to two vaccine manufacturers on April 26 for procurement of 67 lakh doses each from them, Sisodia said.
"But even before the manufacturers replied, we received the Centre's letter on April 29 that said we would get just 3.59 lakh vaccines including 92840 doses of Covaxin and 267690 doses of Covishield," he said.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said the letters of Delhi government to vaccine manufacturers exposed Sisodia's "lie".
"Delhi government's letter to manufacturers says it's planning to procure the doses which exposes Sisodia's claim that his government had ordered for the vaccines.
The truth is they did not place order for vaccines in time," Khurana said.
Sisodia charged that the BJP is "shamelessly lying" and added "we don't understand the reason behind such lies because central government ultimately decides how many vaccines will be distributed to states and then to nations abroad."
The papers from vaccine companies and the Health Ministry itself are proof that the central government has "completely overlooked" the crisis at hand, and instead exported vaccines to other nations.
If 6.5 crore doses had been administered to the people of the country instead of being exported, so many lives were saved, he added.