Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that the Centre’s decision to make states procure vaccines went “against the principle of co-operative federalism” and that it would be “extremely difficult” for his state to shoulder the burden at a time its resources had already been stretched by the pandemic.

The letter, dated May 31 and made public by the chief minister’s office late on Monday night, urged Modi to provide vaccines for free to the state.

Soren wrote: “The financial burden on the state for vaccination of the age cohort of 18-44 years is likely to be more than Rs 1,100 crore considering 1.57 crore eligible beneficiaries. With vaccine being available for age cohort of 12-18 years and below, the mentioned financial burden will further increase by around Rs 1,000 crore. It will be extremely difficult to spare as much resources from the resource pool of the state which is already stressed during Covid times.”

The letter added: “This is probably the first instance in the history of independent India that states have been mandated to procure vaccines on their own.”

“Such a mandate, under the ongoing challenging and unprecedented circumstances, where the entire nation is struggling for over a year, stands against the principle of co-operative federalism,” the letter said.

The Jharkhand chief minister pointed out that so far all states had received vaccines free of cost from the Centre for all other immunisation programmes.

Soren’s letter also referred to the differential pricing of vaccines for the Centre and the states.

“It is pertinent to note that the rates specified by the central government for procurement of vaccines by the state for the age cohort of 18-44 years are significantly higher than the rates at which vaccine is being procured by the central government for beneficiaries in the age cohort of 45 years and above. This dichotomy will not stand the scrutiny of reasonable classification under the fundamental principles of the Constitution of India,” the letter stated.

Soren pointed to the inherent diversity of the country and the need to tweak vaccine administration accordingly.

“The inherent diversity of India creates various peculiarities specific to the concerned states. Every state has its own high-risk groups depending on the geographical, cultural and traditional heterogeneity. As such, a common framework defined by the central government with regard to prioritising beneficiaries across the country is not desirable,” the letter said.

“It is requested to provide to the state free vaccine for beneficiaries of all age groups and also give us the freedom to define priorities for vaccination coverage. This would help us in achieving the target of full vaccination in a timely manner, which would go a long way in ensuring effective tackling of the anticipated third wave,” the chief minister added.

In May, Soren had likened the Prime Minister’s call to him to his “Mann Ki Baat”, revealing that Modi only spoke his mind about the current Covid situation without allowing him to air his concerns about it.