Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday hit out at state governments that have flagged issues with the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
In recent days, governments of Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have said they were facing shortage of COVID-19 vaccines.
In a series of tweets, Harsh Vardhan said, "I'm seeing irresponsible statements from various leaders regarding #LargestVaccineDrive..."
He then went on to give figures of the vaccine supply in June and the expected supply in July.
Harsh Vardhan wrote the Central government had provided 75 per cent of vaccines for free and "11.50 cr doses were given in June".
Referring to the supply for July, Harsh Vardhan wrote, "States have already been informed in advance about #COVID19Vaccine supplies for July. This info was shared with States 15 days prior, along with details about day wise supply... total of 12 cr doses shall be made available in July. Pvt hospital supply will be over & above this."
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Alleging political games behind the complaints, Harsh Vardhan wrote, "If there are issues in states, it shows that they need to better plan their #vaccination drives. Intra-state planning & logistics are the responsibility of the states... I request these leaders to desist from their shameless urge to play politics even in the midst of a pandemic."
"If these leaders are aware of these facts and are still giving such statements, I consider it most unfortunate. If they don’t know, they need to focus on governance. Will again request state leaders to spend more energies in planning and not in creating panic,” Harsh Vardhan wrote.