Mamata Banerjee slams Centre over price disparity of COVID-19 vaccines, bats for free jabs

Amid the politics over COVID vaccines, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has lashed out at the Centre over differential pricing of COVID vaccine in the country. She demanded the Centre to fix one price for the COVID vaccine "irrespective of the age group, caste creed, location". This comes after the Serum Institute of India (SII) which manufactures Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield fixed the vaccine's price at Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals.

Issuing a statement on Wednesday, SII unveiled the price after the Union Government liberalised the vaccination process by allowing inoculation to people of 18 years of age and above. SII noted that 50% of its capacities would serve the Centre's vaccination scheme and the remaining 50% will be for the state governments and private hospitals. This is along the lines of what the Prime Minister said in his address to the Nation on Tuesday, that state governments will be able to procure directly, whereas the government will continue its inoculation drive.

Politics over COVID vaccine

After the Centre announced the liberalisation of the vaccination process, Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit out at the Centre calling the decision to be "hollow without substance and a regrettable show of evasion of responsibility by the Central Government at the time of crisis."

In her letter to PM Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee criticised the Centre for implementing the said policy with no consideration of disproportionality between production capacities and the nationwide demand for the vaccine.

Mamata Banerjee's statements also come in times of the Assembly elections in West Bengal as the CM is at loggerheads with the BJP which is eyeing a to dethrone the TMC led government.

A day earlier, even Congress had lashed out at the Centre over the price disparity of the SII manufactured Covishield. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala also lashed out at the Centre stating that while the Centre gets vaccines for Rs 150, price for state governments and private hospitals is fixed at Rs 400 and 600 respective. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi compared the Centre's new vaccine policy to demonetisation. He stated that "only a few industrialists will get benefited by the policy while the common man will have to stand in queues and bear the loss of money, health and life."