Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 4

Hours before the Punjab Government withdrew the controversial sale of Covaxin doses to 20 private hospitals at a profit, the BJP attacked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh-led dispensation for “committing a sin by disregarding people’s aspirations and failing them in Covid-19 times.”

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar led the charge against the Congress government, saying: “A strange kind of politics is playing out in Punjab. Covid management in the state leaves much to be desired. The required level of government involvement needed for Covid testing and response is not there. Internal factionalism has been bogging the Congress in Punjab for six months. The entire party and the government have been camping in Delhi for four days. Who will care about the people?”

The minister said “disregard of Punjab’s people at the altar of internal rifts was a big sin of the Congress in Punjab.” He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should put his own house in order in the state rather than ‘lecture others on the vaccine policy”.

“Dangerous reports have come out of Punjab suggesting the state government got 1,40,000 Covaxin doses for Rs 400 each and sold these to 20 private hospitals for Rs 1,060 each,” Javadekar said. The minister said Punjab was among the states that first sought decentralisation of vaccine procurement and are now demanding centralisation. “They change their stand daily,” said Javadekar.