AAP, BJP Trade Barbs Over Vaccine Shortage In Delhi; Sisodia Slams Centre As States Bid For Global Tenders

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre and asked what the Government of India’s role is if all state governments should go to international markets to buy vaccines.

New Delhi: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cornering the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over its approach towards handling the Covid-19 pandemic amid vaccine shortage in Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre and asked what the Government of India’s role is if all state governments should go to international markets to buy vaccines.

“The BJP says that Delhi Government should have floated an international tender to buy vaccines from the international market. Does this mean that all state governments should go to international markets to buy vaccines? Then, what is the role of Government of India?” Sisodia said while addressing a press conference earlier in the day.

Earlier in the day, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi lambasted the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government of Delhi over shortage of vaccines amid the surge in Covid-19 cases in capital city.

“In advertisements, it is being said that Arvind Kejriwal will provide universal vaccination in Delhi. But neither any global tender has been floated nor any other arrangement has been made for vaccines. If they have done it, they should show tender copy,” she said.

Escalating her attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government, the BJP leader said “not a single ICU bed has been added in Delhi during the last one year”.

“Delhi has the ventilators sent by Prime Minister National Relief Fund only. They (AAP) spent only 1-1.5 crores on oxygen and probably those oxygen cylinders are being recovered from their MLAs,” she said.

This came as the Chief Minister expressing concern over the lack of enough COVID-19 vaccine stock wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that in order to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccine in the country, the vaccine formula should also be shared with other vaccine manufacturers so that it can be produced on a much larger scale.

Delhi has recorded 12,481 fresh Covid-19 cases, 13,583 recoveries and 347 in the last 24 hours. There are 83,809 Covid-19 active cases in the national capital while 12,44,880 people have so far recuperated from the virus.