Maharashtra vaccine supply disproportionately low, says university research

MUMBAI:  The Centre had claimed that Maharashtra has received the highest number of vaccine doses, but there are several small states such as Gujarat, Haryana and Uttarakhand which have been given more vaccines, according to an Ashoka University research paper.

According to the Centre, Maharashtra administered 1,63,38,923 doses against the supply of 1,63,62,470 by the Centre. That way, the state did the highest number of vaccinations across India. An Ashoka University research paper says as per reports of Covid positive cases, the percentage of vaccine allocation to Maharashtra is a mere 3.68%, while the share of Gujarat is the highest at 30.59%.

After Gujarat, Rajasthan received 29.76% of doses against the total number of positive cases. Maharashtra’s number in this list is 22nd across India. The vaccine is a silver bullet against Covid-19, still it has fewer doses supplied by the Centre despite having the highest number of Covid cases. In Maharashtra, total active cases are 6,56,870 while there have been 70,851 deaths.

The study further revealed that as per population, Maharashtra has also not got enough vaccines from the Centre — that percentage is 0.37 while it is 0.61 for Gujarat. The highest allocation as per population is Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat across India. Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the data has exposed the lies of the Central government.

“They should apologise to the people of Maharashtra for blatantly lying about the actual data. The study shows there is a step-motherly treatment by the Centre because BJP failed to form a government in the state,” Sawant said. He said propaganda was at work about vaccine wastage by Maharashtra. “A report of the Centre  has revealed that Maharashtra does not figure in the top 10 states for wastage of vaccines,” said Sawant.