Cong pitches for mass vaccination

BHUBANESWAR :  The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Friday urged the Centre and Odisha government to begin mass Covid vaccination for all the 4.5 crore people of the State free of cost.

A delegation of senior Congress leaders led by working president Pradeep Majhi and MP Saptagiri Ulaka submitted a memorandum addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind to Governor Ganeshi Lal stating that the Centre should make immediate moves to procure vaccines and provide to the State for vaccination.   

Referring a tweet by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on April 25 that the State government has ordered vaccines required for all the 1.93 crore people of 18-45 age group for which Rs 2,000 crore will be spent, Majhi said the government should now clear the actual position as vaccination has been suspended.

Koraput MP Ulaka said the CoWin registration should be withdrawn from tribal and rural areas as it is serving no purpose as most of these places do not have internet connectivity. He criticised the Chief Minister for not taking up the issue of erratic supply of vaccine with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they met here for cyclone damage review last week.

t was the Chief Minister’s idea that the Centre should allow states to procure vaccine, but when the move failed he is now demanding that the Centre should purchase vaccine and supply to states, the leaders said.