The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) leader and Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia criticised the central government on Friday, saying that the milestone could have been achieved at least six months ago if the Union government had made adequate arrangements and not exported vaccines at a time when India was short of doses.
“While celebration the 100 crore vaccine milestone, we must remember that if the central government made adequate arrangements in time and not invested in public relation activities, such as exporting doses when India was facing a shortage, then the medical teams across the country could have achieved the milestone at least six months ago,” Sisodia said in a tweet.
Earlier on Friday, while addressing the nation a day after the cumulative vaccine doses against coronavirus crossed the landmark figure of 100 crore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country has succeeded in its Covid campaign and 130 crore citizens are behind it.
The vaccination drive across India was rolled out on January 16, starting with health care workers, later expanding in phases to include groups such as frontline workers, elderly people, those with comorbidities, individuals aged over 45 years, and eventually the entire adult population of the country.
In Delhi, government records showed, around 21 million total doses have been administered so far which includes full (double-dose) vaccination of 7.1 million people – which is around 40% of the city’s total adult population.
The Delhi government has been at loggerheads with the central government over the export of vaccines and the AAP witnessed several protests over it during June. They had also been asking the Union government to draft strategies to increase the production of vaccines in India, including resorting to methods like sharing of patents.
