Mamata Banerjee lashes out as PM Modi centralises India's COVID-19 vaccination drive

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free COVID-19 vaccination for all above 18 years of age, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that it took four months for the PM to listen to their plea and that the delayed decision has already cost many lives.

"The well-being of the people of India should've been prioritized since the very start of this pandemic. Unfortunately, this delayed decision by PM has already cost many lives," she said in a tweet. "Hoping for a better-managed vaccination drive this time that focuses on people and not propaganda," she added.

Making the key announcement on Monday, PM Modi declared the scrapping of decentralised policy rolled out by the Government on May 1 and said it will now procure 75% of COVID-19 vaccines from the manufacturers and subsequently provide these free to the States for inoculation. The remaining 25% would be available for private players, with a cap on the service charge.

Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee had earlier written to the Prime Minister urging him to expedite the procurement of vaccines and suggested a franchise-based model for vaccine manufacturers. The state also mulled floating a global tender but it is presumable that its efforts to procure vaccines were not fruitful.

Govt centralises COVID vaccine drive

During his address to the nation, PM Modi also highlighted the changing stance of the state governments regarding the procurement, and administration of Coronavirus vaccines. He asserted that many states forced the Union Government to reverse the centralized vaccination drive, to which the Government agreed. However, after learning about the complications attached to the decentralization process, the states began to demand the centralized arrangement.

“By the second week of May, when the COVID-19 cases were at an all-time high and there was a growing demand for vaccination, many state governments backtracked and started accepting that the previous arrangement was better. With time, more states - even those who had been the first advocates of the decentralization process - joined these states and approached the Centre for reconsidering the entire issue,” PM said.

"25% of vaccination work which had been handed to states will now be handled by the Centre, it will be implemented in the coming two weeks. Both States and Centre will work as per new guidelines in the coming two weeks. From June 21, free vaccines for people above 18 years," PM Modi said.