Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren scoffs at PM's call to CMs: 'Didn't listen, only spoke his mind'

Taking a dig at PM Modi's call with him, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren on Thursday, commented that 'PM should have listened to his work'. Claiming that PM only 'spoke his mind', Soren said it would be better if h 'spoken about work'. Jharkhand has 59,532 active cases and 2,00,237 recovered cases with 3346 fatalities.

Hemant Soren takes a dig at Modi

PM Modi speaks to CMs

Earlier in day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Ministers of 4 states, including Telangana, Andhra Presh, Odisha and Jharkhand to take stock of situation pertaining to COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister also called up Lieutenant Governors of Puducherry and Jammu & Kashmir to evaluate coronavirus crisis in ir Union territories. As per Prime Minister's Office (PMO), PM Modi spoke to CMS & LGs to review progress of vaccination and romap for scaling up production of vaccines in next few months.

India's oxygen & vaccine shortage

Currently, India is grappling with acute oxygen supply with Delhi being hit worst - several hospitals have moved High Court seeking oxygen supply. While Centre and Delhi govt have blamed each or for ongoing oxygen crisis in national capital, Railways has started 'Oxygen Express'  to transport liquid oxygen to states via green corridors. se trains have alrey begun to arrive at UP, Maharashtra, Andhra from Odisha, Jharkhand and ors. Delhi, which has increased its demand to 900 MT oxygen per day has been allotted only 480 MT by Centre. Delhi has demanded Centre's help in procuring more oxygen, accusing UP and Haryana of obstructing its supply and expressing inability to procure tankers. Delhi HC has warned Centre with contempt proceedings if oxygen quota of Delhi (490 MT) is not met with, tasking  Centre wit arranging tankers for Delhi. Except for nine sectors, supply of oxygen for industrial purposes by manufacturers and suppliers has been prohibited from April 22 as a temporary measure.

Meanwhile, India's vaccination drive has hit a roblock due to shortage of supplies. On April 19, relaxed age bar for vaccination from May 1 onwards allowing 18+ to be vaccinated, and states to procure doses from manufacturers directly and approved an vance payment of Rs 4,567.50 crores to Serum Institute of India (SII) & Bharat Biotech (BBL) to ramp up vaccine production. Soon enough, most state governments placed lakhs of orders with two vaccine manufacturers, but are yet to receive ir orders. States like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Jammu-Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Delhi have postponed ir vaccination drive by two weeks atleast due to a shortage of vaccine doses. Both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have offered vaccines at RS 150/dose to Centre, but at Rs 300 and Rs 400 respectively to state governments.