After Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to provide vaccines for free to states on Monday, the state unit of the Congress carried out a social media campaign demanding free universal vaccination on Wednesday.
“This is a part of our national campaign on social media, ‘Speak Up for Free Universal Vaccination’, demanding the Prime Minister to ensure free vaccination for all,” said state Congress spokesperson Alok Kumar Dubey.
He said the campaign is being propagated through social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“Since Independence, we have seen vaccination programme was carried out by the Union government by providing free vaccines to all,” said state Congress president and finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, adding that this was the first time the states were being asked to buy vaccines for people in the age group of 18 to 44 years.
All governments across the world give free vaccines, the minister further said, demanding that the Union government must provide them to all in India as well.
Agriculture minister Badal Patralekh, who is also the chairman of the vaccination committee of the party, went to Bapu Batika at Morabadi grounds in Ranchi along with party colleagues Lal Kishore Nath Shahdeo, Rajesh Gupta and Dubey to take part in a Facebook Live programme on vaccination.
“The Union government must declare a universal vaccination policy for providing free vaccines to all within a time frame,” Patralekh said.
“When other countries were buying vaccines for their citizens, our country kept quiet and allowed our manufacturers to sell their vaccines abroad,” he alleged, adding that everyone should be vaccinated by the end of this year.
If the vaccination programme continues at the current pace, it will take a few years to be completed, Shahdeo said, demanding that jabs for all be expedited.
“The government that favours ‘one nation, one taxation’ policy should also follow ‘one nation, one vaccination’ policy and ensure free universal vaccination,” he further said, criticising the Centre for asking the states to buy Covid vaccines for the 18 to 44 age group.
