The Karnataka Congress on Friday announced that it has prepared a ₹100 crore plan to procure COVID-19 vaccines directly from manufacturers and administer them to the people of Karnataka, KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar said in a press conference held alongside former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah.
“Since BJP governments at the Centre and Karnataka have collectively failed to vaccinate the masses, we want to do it ourselves. We just need two small permissions, one from the central government and one from the state government. My appeal to the BJP to not let politics come in the way and in the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat allow Congress to directly procure and administer vaccines,” Mr Shivakumar said.
Currently, vaccine procurement rules in India allowed central and state governments, hospitals and industries to directly procure vaccines.
Mr Shivakumar said ₹10 crore would be contributed by the Karnataka Congress Party Committee (KPCC) fund. Another ₹90 crore will be mobilised from the Congress MLA/MLC funds.
“I appeal to the Yediyurappa government to please allow us to use the MLA/MLC funds to procure vaccines directly in a transparent manner because the Modi and Yediyurappa governments are failing to do so for months now,” the KPCC chief said.
“The government has miserably failed to protect the people and vaccinate people. Hence, the MPs, MLAs and MLCs of the Congress, who are 95 in number have decided to donate at least Rs one crore each to procure vaccine,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said. “This is an unprecedented decision in the history of Karnataka,” he added.