Congress President Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday alleging that the government has not learnt any lesson from the past and its vaccine policy is arbitrary and discriminatory.
She also asked how “the Government of India can permit such brazen profiteering from people’s misery?”.
This comes a day after Pune based vaccine maker - Serum Institute of India released its differential Covid-19 vaccine’s price list for the Centre, states and private hospital.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi said, "It's surprising that despite the harsh lessons of last year and pain inflicted to our citizens, the government continues to follow an arbitrary and discriminatory policy which promises to exacerbate existing challenges."
The Congress President said that the policy implies that the government has "abdicated" its responsibility for a free vaccination to all.
She demanded a re-evaluation of the Centre’s modified vaccination policy and a uniform price for vaccines.
Several states have asked the Central government to decentralise the vaccination process and lift the age gap to allow more people to get vaccinated, the Centre had recently, announced all adults will be eligible for the covid vaccine and shots can be sold at the market from May 1.
She asked why the government is allowing profiteering by the companies manufacturing the vaccine in the country.
In her letter to PM, Gandhi referred to the Serum Institute of India’s rate list -- Rs150 per dose for the Centre but ₹400 for state government and ₹600 for private hospitals -- and said, “This means that citizens will be compelled to pay these high rates to be vaccinated. This will also bleed the finances of state governments.”
“In these unprecedented times, how can the Government of India permit such brazen profiteering from people’s misery? At a time when medical resources are scarce, hospital beds are unavailable, oxygen supply and availability of essential medicine is dwindling rapidly, why is your Government allowing a policy that reeks of such insensitivity,” she said.
Earlier, Congress has demanded free vaccination for all regardless of the economic condition and the policy be reversed. It reiterated - “one nation, one price” for vaccines.
Sonia Gandhi's letter comes in the wake of the Serum Institute of India (SII) announcing on Wednesday that the Covishield vaccine will be sold at Rs 400 per dose to the state government and Rs 600 to private hospitals.
“..how can the same vaccine manufactured by the same company have three different prices?” Gandhi questioned.
She reiterated that the allocation of vaccines to state governments should be “transparent and equitable, in line with the spirit of cooperative federalism.”
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Serum chief Adar Poonawalla welcomed the government's announcement to accelerate India's vaccination drive. "The promising directives will help to scale up vaccine production, and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centres to procure vaccines directly," Poonawalla said.
He added that for the next two months, they will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production.