Chief minister Hemant Soren has refuted the Centre’s claim that Jharkhand had registered the highest vaccine wastage at 37.3 per cent, saying that the data on vaccine usage could not be uploaded on the Co-WIN platform due to technical glitches.

“As per total vaccine doses availability with Govt of Jharkhand till today, the current vaccine wastage proportion is only 4.65 per cent. Vaccination data could not be fully updated to the central Co-WIN server due to technical glitches,” Hemant tweeted from his official handle soon after the Centre released state-wide data of vaccine wastage.

So angry was state health minister Banna Gupta with the Centre’s claim that he accused the Centre of fudging data to defame Jharkhand.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released data of vaccine wastage in states in which it claimed that 37.3 per cent vaccine shots were wasted in Jharkhand – the highest in the country-- against a national average of 6.3 per cent.

According to the ministry data, Chhattisgarh, with 30.2 per cent, registered the second highest wastage of the vaccine and Tamil Nadu, with 15.3 per cent, was third. Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh also reported more than 10 per cent vaccine wastage.

The difference in data compiled by a UPA coalition-ruled Jharkhand and the BJP-ruled Centre comes amid glaring glitches in the Co-WIN app highlighted by residents across the country.

As per data shared by the state government on Wednesday, Jharkhand has so far utilised 42,07,128 doses of the vaccine and covered 40,12,142 residents. As many as 4,635 vaccine doses have been wasted in the state so far, government data highlighted.

The chief minister added that the state government was fully focused on utilising available vaccine doses in the most prudent manner possible ensuring minimal wastage. “We hope to minimise it further with more focused vaccination awareness campaigns in forested and rural areas of the state,” he said.

Minister Banna Gupta was scathing. “Union government is defaming Jharkhand by manipulation of data. We want to know the reason behind releasing such fudged figures. It (centre) must explain if the entire nation is being fooled and duped with similar data manipulation,” the Congress minister tweeted.

Jharkhand has been complaining about the Centre’s bias against the state since the second wave of Covid-19 hit the country. The state health minister had earlier released a statement claiming that the Centre was neither providing life-saving drugs to Jharkhand as per demand nor was it supplying enough vaccine doses to immunize those between 18 and 44 year of age in the state.

Jharkhand also became the first state in India to seek the Centre’s nod in procuring Remdesivir injections from Bangladesh amid rapidly rising cases of Covid deaths.

On Monday, Hemant had expressed concern about the acute shortage of vaccines during a virtual meeting with his cabinet colleagues. He said that Jharkhand would be forced to stop vaccinating people in the 18+ age group as only for two-three days’ stocks remained. Similarly, stocks for 45+ age group would get exhausted in 7-10 days, he had warned and blamed the Centre for mismanagement of the nationwide vaccination drive.