Cong's Adhir Ranjan seeks PM Modi's intervention to increase Bengal's COVID vaccine quota

On Sunday, President of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his attention to raising the quota of COVID vaccines for West Bengal. Taking serious considerations to the spread of the lethal virus in the state, the Congress leader maintained that there has been a hidden crisis of 'COVID explosion' in the state given its dense population. The state Congress President has requested the Indian Prime Minister to 'do the needful' to increase the allocation of Covid vaccine' for the state. "I am given to understand that up to August 2, approximately 3,00,65,845 persons have been vaccinated (in the state)," Chowdhury said in the letter.

West Bengal population in 2021 is estimated to be 100 Million (10 Crores). According to Unique Identification Aadhar India, updated on December 31, 2020, by the end of the year, 2020, the projected population was supposed to be around 99,609,303 and is presently the fourth-largest populated state in India.

"70% population still waiting for the protection"

The West Bengal Congress President stated that nearly 70 percent of the state's 10 crore population is still waiting for protection from the virus. The Mamata Banerjee government had repeatedly criticising Narendra Modi-led government for providing an inadequate number of COVID vaccines to West Bengal than some BJP-ruled states with comparatively less population.

Notably, the ministry of health in the month of July had provided the list of vaccination allocated to the states. Topping the list in allocation was Uttar Pradesh procuring 90,92,780 doses, followed by Maharashtra (52,01,640), Madhya Pradesh (47,18,350), Bihar (47,05,140), Rajasthan (37,46,580) and West Bengal (33,62,210). As of July 2021, the Centre has allocated 6,30,06,250 doses in July, and 42.34 crore doses have been administered to date. 

COVID situation in India

Meanwhile, on Sunday, India reported 39,070 fresh Covid-19 cases and 491 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to Union Health Ministry data. With this, the overall tally of cases has surged to 3,19,34,455, while the death toll stands at 4,27,862. Kerala with 20,367 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 6,061 cases, Tamil Nadu with 1,969 cases, Andhra Pradesh with 1,908 cases, and Karnataka with 1,610 cases have topped the list of five states registering maximum cases of COVID.

Image Credit: PTI, ANI