Kolkata: A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda challenged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that the BJP-led Central Government will vaccinate everyone by December, Banerjee on Wednesday cried foul against the Centre saying that the it had not sent adequate vaccines to Bengal and also that despite odds the Trinamool Congress government had vaccinated 2 crore 17 lakh people so far in the state.
“The Centre had just sent 1 crore 99 lakh vaccines in West Bengal. Spending crores of rupees, the state government had purchased 48 lakh vaccines and now due to scarcity of vaccines there will be no vaccination drive for two days,” stated the Chief Minister.
Referring to the fake vaccination camp that was busted by TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty on June 22, the West Bengal Chief Minister said that the BJP is also involved in the scam.
Reacting to this, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said that instead of blaming, the TMC supremo should look for the heavyweights behind the vaccination scam.
“Since their MP busted the camp for which she couldn’t blame the Prime Minister. Otherwise, she would have said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent fake vaccines to kill the people of Bengal. Fake people were also there during the election and had also intimidated people during the polls,” claimed Ghosh.
Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan sought a report from West Bengal Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi over fake vaccination camps within two days so that immediate action can be taken.
Notably, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had last week written a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan over central agency inquiry of the vaccine scam.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed this to be a planted game of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“In Gujarat, vaccination was given through the BJP party office then no union ministry had written a letter. In West Bengal, the Centre is purposely trying to budge in to probe the case,” added Mamata.
It can be recalled that on June 29, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had sought the FIR copy of the scam from Kolkata Police to ascertain financial misappropriation behind the scam.
Moreover, the Calcutta High Court has sought affidavit from the West Bengal government over the fake vaccination camp.