The Bureau of Outreach and Communication in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was issued Rs 25 lakh for displaying banners and hoardings at prominent locations on India achieving the landmark of 100 crore vaccination, Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Responding to a question, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said the government commemorated the historic vaccination milestone.

"An amount of INR 25,00,000 was issued to Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, for displaying banners/hoardings of India achieving this landmark of 100 crore vaccination at prominent locations," she said in her written reply.

Asked whether it is also a fact that it could have been achieved few months earlier if the government arranged vaccines for the people on time and what were the reasons for delay in ordering vaccines, she said, "There have been no delay in placing orders with domestic vaccine manufacturers, rather advance orders of vaccines have been placed with Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech for supply of COVID-19 vaccines."

“The availability of vaccines has not been a constraint for implementation of National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme and the milestone of 100 crore vaccinations has been achieved in the shortest possible time, well ahead of most of the countries in the world,” Pawar said.

In a separate response, she said the government through procurement agency HLL Lifecare Limited has placed order for 161 crore doses of Covid vaccine for free of cost supply to states and union territories.

As on November 27, an expenditure of Rs 19,675.46 crore has been incurred for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, she said.