Mamata Banerjee announces free COVID-19 vaccine in West Bengal; BJP calls it 'bogus claim'

Ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday in an open letter announced that the state government will provide free COVID-19 vaccine to all the people of the state. The West Bengal Chief Minister in the letter also saluted all the COVID-19 warriors for their selfless contribution amid the pandemic. 

The letter written by Mamata Banerjee stated, "I am happy to announce that our government is making arrangements to facilitate the administration of COVID-19 vaccine to all the people of the state without any cost."

Mamata Banerjee announces free COVID-19 vaccine in Bengal

West Bengal CM said that the state government is currently making arrangements to facilitate the administration of Coronavirus vaccine. The letter further mentioned that the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines will provide priority to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers. As per local media reports, the Coronavirus vaccination in the state is likely to begin by January 14. 

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BJP slams Mamata Banerjee

Reacting to Mamata Banerjee's claim of providing free Coronavirus vaccine to all the people of West Bengal, national in-charge of BJP's Information & Technology department Amit Malviya on Sunday termed the free vaccine claim 'bogus'. Amit Malviya said, "It doesn't stop at CM making bogus claim that her government is providing free Covid vaccine to all frontline workers, TMC cadres are rushing to put out posters, which read, "Every person of our state to be given Covid vaccine for free, announces Didi. "Shamelessness has no limit."

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Taking a fresh jibe at the Bengal Chief Minister, BJP's national in-charge said that the TMC government has miserably failed to fulfil targets set under the National Blindness Control program due to lack of infrastructure and human resources in the state-run hospitals. "West Bengal hasn't recruited a single optometrist in the last 18 years," Malviya added. 

West Bengal polls 

The West Bengal Assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats. However, BJP has made major inroads in the state in the Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats and establishing itself as the major opposition force in the state. Recently, TMC trumped BJP in all 3 bypolls, but the BJP is using its booth-level strategy and has regularly dispatched its top leaders including Amit Shah and JP Nadda in the state for winning the upcoming elections. 

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COVID-19 outbreak in Bengal

As the world continues to battle against the Coronavirus pandemic, West Bengal so far has recorded over 5,59,886 positive cases, out of which 5,41,930 have successfully recovered while 9,922 have died. According to the latest reports received by MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 787 new cases, 978 fresh recoveries and 20 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in West Bengal is 8,034. 

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