Congress takes 'vaccinate all' plea to Governor
Source: Chronicle News Service / DIPR

Imphal, June 04 2021: A team of Congress Legislature Party led by former chief minister O Ibobi Singh submitted a memorandum on 'Guaranteeing one crore vaccination a day and to ensure universal free vaccination for every citizen of India' to the Governor Dr Najma Heptulla at Raj Bhavan, here on Friday.

The memorandum pointed out that Covid-19 has caused unprecedented devastation and immeasurable pain to nearly every Indian family.

The need of the hour is for the Union government to procure the vaccine and supply it free of cost to the states and private hospitals for vaccination the people of India.

The only way to save the people is to vaccinate the entire adult population of above 18 years on or before December 31 .

Then only each Indian can emerge victorious over Covid-19, mentioned the memorandum.

The CLP leader was accompanied by CWC member MLA Gaikhangam, MPCC president MLA Govindas Konthoujam and MPCC general secretary MLA K Meghachandra Singh.

As directed by the All India Congress Committee under the leadership of party president Sonia Gandhi, the Congress delegation reportedly discussed with the Governor about the need to have free and universal vaccination of all the citizens of the country.

The memorandum sought the attention of the Governor to ensure free and total vaccination, with two doses on time of all the residents in Manipur.

Briefing the media after meeting the Governor, Ibobi expressed the non-political suggestions and appealed to the state government on the need to have a time-bound, aggressive and mass vaccination - besides random testing which had been taken up lately - across the state, in both the valley and the hills.

He also contended that the state government had no clear-cut policy on providing any compensation - in the form of extending Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh - to the doctors, para-medical staff and frontline COVID-19 warriors and police personnel who passed away fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also asked why there should not be a compensation of Rs 4 lakh, as per the government's order which already was in place, each to the next kin of the deceased due to COVID-19 in Manipur.

Ibobi further questioned the rationale behind the delay of the second dose in the state and making those citizens who have received the dose wait for three months while Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the 2nd dose within a gap of one month.

He pointed out that what the testing would do if there were no vaccines, as the vaccination should be given the top priority to save the lives from the severity of COVID-19 infections and COVID-19 deaths.

Among others, the Congress memorandum accused the Central government of completely abdicating its duty of fighting the coronavirus and abandoning the people, leaving them to fend for themselves.

"The truth is that the Union BJP government is guilty of criminal mismanagement of COVID-19," alleged the Congress party.

It further stated that vaccination is the only protection in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

As other countries started placing purchase orders for vaccines from May 2020, the Modi government failed India.

It went on to place its first order of vaccines only in January 2021 .

As per the government of India, it has administered 21.31 crore vaccine doses till May 31, 2021 .

But, only 4.45 crore Indians have received both the doses of vaccine, which is only 3.17 per cent of India's population.

In the last 134 days, the average pace of vaccination is about 16 lakh vaccine doses per day.

"At this pace, it will take over three years for us to vaccinate our adult population.

If this is the case, how will we save our fellow citizens from the third wave of Corona is the question that the Modi government needs to answer?" questioned the Congress party in a memorandum.

The Congress party further stated that the need of the hour is that the BJP government should procure the vaccine and supply it for free to the states and private hospitals for the vaccination of the people of India.

"Also, we need to vaccinate our entire adult population of above 18 years on or before December 31, 2021 .

This is the only way to save our people.

For this, the only solution is to vaccinate at least one crore people a day and not at the current average of 16 lakh people a day," it added.

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