Chandigarh: While the Punjab Government is already facing infighting as the MLAs and MPs are not satisfied with the working of the Capt Amarinder Singh government, another issue has brought the state under the scanner.
After reports of the Punjab government’s move to sell Covaxin procured under the state quota to private hospitals to make a profit of ₹660 per dose in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Punjab's opposition party SAD on Thursday accused the state's Congress government of diverting Covid vaccines to private hospitals at hefty margins.
Further, the private hospital profits ₹500 per shot as the customer pays ₹1,560 for each jab.
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a statement, alleged that vaccine doses were not available in the state but they were being sold to private institutions instead of being given free of cost to the common man.
He claimed that a Covaxin dose costing Rs 400 to the state was being sold to private institutions at Rs 1,060.
He said the private hospitals are further charging people Rs 1,560 for each dose.
This amounts to a cost of Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 per family for a single dose .
Badal alleged that in Mohali alone, 35,000 doses were sold to private institutions to earn a profit of nearly Rs two crore in a single day.
He said it was immoral for the Congress government to make a profit from the sale of vaccines.
Badal alleged that the state government is punishing the people by forcing them to cough up Rs 1,560 per dose during a time of economic slowdown.
The Akali Dal chief also raised questions over Rahul Gandhi who has been demanding free vaccines from the centre since the start and asked if he supports the Punjab government's move to force the common man to pay Rs 1,560 per dose.
Badal demanded a high court-monitored probe into how the Congress government was allegedly creating an artificial shortage of vaccines for the common man by selling its doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals, the SAD said in a statement.