Ranchi: JPCC Chief and Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon on Monday welcomed the decision of the Centre to provide free of cost Covid vaccination to everyone in the country.
He said that due to the pressure created by the Congress party, social media campaigns and comments made by the judiciary the centre has decided to provide free vaccination to everyone which is welcome by the party however the centre should compensate the state governments for the financial expenses incurred for providing free vaccines to the people in the age group 18-44 years.
Dr Oraon said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation has said that free vaccination will be provided after two weeks therefore the centre should provide compensation for the financial expenses to be made during this period. He said that the free vaccination should have been started way earlier.
He said that after Independence of the nation in all the vaccination programmes which have been held in the country free vaccines have been provided to the people but for the first time the states were handed over the responsibility to provide vaccines to the people in the age group 18-44 years due to which people across the country were angry. He claimed that even leaders of BJP had spoken against the decision of the centre but as it has decided to undertake free vaccination therefore now it is the responsibility of the centre to provide vaccines on a priority basis to the states to complete the vaccination process.
He claimed that it was due to the faulty policy of the centre the vaccine manufacturers gave 50 percent of the vaccines to the private hospitals. Dr Oraon said that the state governmenr had made a provision of Rs 249 crore to provide free vaccination in age group 18-44 years and out of that 49 crores have been already paid to vaccine manufacturers.
Dr Oraon appreciated the decision of the centre for extending the free of cost food grains supply scheme till Diwali. He said that for the month of May foodgrains have been supplied to the people and the state government will make sure that poor and the needy get the foodgrains.