Govt busy patting its back but questions remain: Congress

As the government celebrated the milestone of administering 100 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses, the Congress Thursday said as many as 32 crore of the total 103 crore adult population has not received a single dose so far and asked the Prime Minister to tell the country by when will his promise of vaccinating all adults be fulfilled.

The Congress also demanded setting up of an independent commission, comprising health experts and judges, to look into the Covid deaths and fix accountability for the loss of lives during the two waves of the pandemic.

The commission can also identify all those who died so that their families can be provided adequate compensation, Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference.

He said the Government is busy patting its back but many questions remain. “We would like to know by which date 74 crore adult Indians will be administered 106 crore doses of the coronavirus vaccine. According to the government figures, out of the 103 crores adult population…only 29 crore people have been vaccinated fully and 42 crores have taken the first dose,” he said.

He claimed that as many as 32 crores of the 103 crores adult population has not received a single dose so far.

“The Prime Minister should tell the country by when will his promise of vaccinating all adults be fulfilled. The

Prime Minister had set a December 31 deadline. To vaccinate the rest of the adult population, the government will have to administer 1.51 crore doses every day to achieve this… In the last 6 days..between October 16 and 21, an average of 39 lakh vaccines were administered daily,” he said.

Surjewala said while the government is celebrating, India is ranked 19th among the G-20 countries, with only 21 per cent of its eligible population having taken both doses of the vaccine.