The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has charged the Centre with “colossal mismanagement of the war against Covid-19”. At its meeting on Saturday, the CwC cautioned the people and said that unless urgent corrective measures are taken, the nation faces an “unprecedented catastrophe”.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal and Ajay Maken said that between the first case in the country and the administering of the first vaccine shot, there is a saga of “tragedy, incompetence and colossal mismanagement”.
They said the Centre, using the Epidemic Act and the Disaster Management Act, made every order or direction issued by it a ‘law’, and the State governments had no authority or freedom to design strategies and measures specific to them.
‘No awareness’
The leaders said the Centre failed to create sufficient public awareness that a “waning pandemic could be a precursor to a more devastating second wave”.
The CWC said in a statement said that the Centre failed to rapidly scale up the production and supply of the two approved vaccines.
“It is a shame that the country with the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing capacity is among the most affected,” they said.
In her initial remarks, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said there was gross unpreparedness and avoidable ad hocism on part of the Modi government in foreseeing, evaluating and managing the crisis.
She said with reverse migration of labour already having started, it will be critical to immediately address their need of safe transportation as indeed their suitable rehabilitation in host as well as home States.