Parties scramble to blame

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Since health experts expressed concerns about the havoc a possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic could wreak, government-run vaccination centers in West Bengal have regularly witnessed chaotic scenes with people. panicked rushing to get vaccines.

In most of these facilities, eligible people queued well before dawn, often only to be informed later that the vaccines are out because the daily quota has run out.

The situation turned grim on Tuesday when a stampede broke out at a vaccination center in Jalpaiguri district, injuring more than 20. The incident took place in a school, where the inoculation process was taking place, in the Dhupguri block of Jalpaiguri.

Hundreds of people had gathered since the early hours of the morning, and when the police opened the gates at around 10 a.m., crowds rushed inside and into the mle, several women, children and the elderly. fallen to the ground.

BJP chief Amit Malviya tweeted: In Bengal, a stampede ensued at a vaccination center in Banarhat bloc, Shalbari # 1 Gram Panchayat, where the doors collapsed and several people were seriously injured. Mamata Banerjee, the unelected CM, is also the Minister of the Interior, Health of Bengal and responsible for this tragedy.

West Bengal’s chief minister has repeatedly blamed the Center for the problems, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government of being biased when distributing vaccines.

On July 15, Mamata even wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, asking him to increase the supply of Covid-19 vaccines before the third wave took hold.

She said in the letter that due to the irregular supply of doses, it had become difficult for her to schedule vaccination for all at the earliest.

According to data released in August, the state began vaccination from January 16 and until July had administered 2.5 crore in doses (with 1.81 crore in first doses and 0.70 crore as second dose) with the provision of 2.12 crore doses from the Center, 18 lakhs purchased by the Government of Bengal and the remainder by the private sector.

The chief minister said the state needed around 11.5 million additional doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to cover everyone in the eligible categories and, given the current level of supply, it could take a lot of time.

However, leaders of opposition parties blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress for mismanagement, which they said led to pandemonium in most of the state government-run vaccination centers.

Speaking to News18, BJP State Chairman Dilip Ghosh said: Mamata Banerjee’s allegations that the Center is not sending enough vaccines to West Bengal are false and unfounded. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of fully immunizing all eligible people in India by December of this year and therefore the central government is providing vaccines to all states. The chaotic situation in all vaccination centers is due to the politicization and mismanagement of the vaccination campaign by Mamata Banerjee. People do not know when and how to get vaccinated. They don’t even know how many vaccines will be given at a particular vaccination center run by the state government.

Congressman Pradip Bhattacharya blamed the politicization of the vaccination campaign for the disorder in vaccination centers.

The entire state administration is powerless and struggles to work freely under the TMC regime, ”he said. “The BJP and TMC politicize the vaccination process. Instead of vaccinating the population, both sides are busy taking credit. write a letter to Mamata Banerjee, asking her to allow the bureaucrats to work fearlessly and honestly.

When contacted, CPI chief (M) Sujan Chakraborty said: “There is no doubt about the vaccine shortage, but it is unfortunate that instead of the state health department , the panchayat and TMC party offices are managing the vaccination campaign. Whatever vaccines we receive from the Center, TMC executives process them for their political benefit. They intentionally create chaotic situations to achieve political impact. They do it to take credit for it. It must stop immediately.

TMC MP Atin Ghosh denied the allegations and said the vaccination campaign is already streamlined and more initiatives will be taken to make the whole process flawless. We have taken a lot of measures (for a good execution of the vaccination campaign) and this cannot be explained in a few words, he added.

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