Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Sunday said the Centre should explain to the people why the number of daily vaccinations was going down if States had vaccine stocks.
In a series of tweets, he took on the Centre for claiming that States had been provided with vaccine doses.
“The Centre says that there are 1.6 crore doses of Corona vaccines available with the States. Several States, including Karnataka and Delhi, have stopped vaccinating the 18-44 age group citing shortage of vaccines,” said the former Union Minister.
“What is the distance between the residences of the Union Health Minister and the Delhi Chief Minister? Why can’t the two meet and any one convince the other that his data is correct? Why are they talking across each other?” he asked.
Mr. Chidambaram said that the fact the number of daily vaccinations was declining could “only be attributed to the shortage of vaccines”.
“If that is not the cause, then the Union Health Minister has a responsibility to tell the people why is the number of vaccinations administered daily declining,” added the senior Congress leader.
He pointed out that after Delhi, that suspended vaccination of 18-44 years age group because of shortage of vaccines, no shots had been administered in 29 out of 33 districts of Telangana.
Mr Chidambaram demanded that the Health Ministry should put out a daily statement of the number of vaccinations administered district-wise every day as data for the entire State “hides many alarming facts”.
“Will the ‘no shortage’ Union Health Minister please answer the facts emerging from Delhi and Telangana,” he asked.
