New Delhi: In a major relief for the majority of Indians who were struggling to get Covid vaccines under the liberalised vaccination policy implemented from May 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced a centralised vaccination model, under which every Indian citizen above the age of 18 years will be entitled to get free Covid vaccine at a government facility.
The decision comes within a week after a sharp criticism by the top court of the country last week as it dubbed the government’s vaccination policy for 18-44 year age group as arbitrary and irrational, raised concerns about compulsory registration on national vaccination portal CoWin and sought details about the utilisation of Rs 35,000 crore vaccination budget.
"Today, this decision has been taken that the 25% vaccination-related work, which is with States, will now be the responsibility of the Government of India. This system will be implemented in the next two weeks," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address to the nation, adding that in the next two weeks, the Centre and States will together make necessary preparations as per the new guidelines.
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"It is a happy coincidence that after two weeks, International Yoga Day will fall on June 21. From June 21, (Monday), the Government of India will provide free vaccines to everyone above the age of 18 years in every state.”
Prime Minister Modi said the Centre would purchase 75% of the total vaccines produced in the country and give it to States free of cost.
"It means no State will have to spend any money on vaccines," he explained about the system under which the Centre will bear the cost of vaccination at government facilities.
The Prime Minister said now the government of India will provide free of cost vaccine to all countrymen, be it poor, lower middle class, middle class or upper class, everybody will receive free vaccine in this campaign of the Central government.
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He, however, clarified that those who do not want free vaccines and want it through a private hospital will be allowed to get vaccinated at a private hospital as one-fourth of the total vaccine production will be given to private hospitals.
"Private Hospitals cannot charge more than Rs 150 as a service charge, this system will continue to be monitored by States,” he added.
States asked for a greater role: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the demands of some States to decentralise the vaccination work as they sought a greater say in deciding the criteria, such as the age of priority groups.
"On the other hand, someone said: why should the cut-off age be decided by the Centre alone? Some questioned the priority vaccination for elderly people. All kinds of pressures were created, a section of the country’s media also ran it like a campaign," PM Modi told the audience.
He recalled that after a lot of deliberation it was decided why the Government of India should object if State governments wanted to make some effort.
"Given this demand from States, as an experiment, a change was made in the system which was launched on January 16," said the Prime Minister, adding that from May 1 onwards, States, in their own way, made efforts to fulfill the 25% work that was handed over to them.
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Talking about the problems faced by some States, the Prime Minister said that they realised the problems of such a mammoth task.
"With the passage of the first two weeks of May, some States openly started saying that the earlier system was better. Some other states also endorsed the idea. It also led to a change in the opinion of those States who had been advocating that the vaccination work should be left to States,” PM Modi said.
"It is good that States have come forward with the demand for a review within time. On this demand from States, we also thought that the old system, which was in force from January 16 to April end, should be implemented again so that the countrymen should not face a problem and their vaccination should be done properly," the Prime Minister said while explaining the rationale behind overturning the new liberalised vaccination policy.
SC questioned the vaccination policy
The decision to reverse the vaccination policy comes within a few days of the sharp criticism by the country’s top court.
On June 2, the Supreme Court dubbed the Centre’s vaccination policy for the 18-44 year group as ‘arbitrary and irrational'.
The issue of compulsory registration on national vaccination portal CoWin (www.cowin.gov.in) was also raised before the court as it deprived the digitally illiterate people from getting the vaccine.
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The Court’s observation came in the wake of a ferocious second Covid wave which killed nearly 1,69,000 people in April-May this year that is more than half of the total Covid deaths in the country since the start of the pandemic in March last year.
Opposition parties blamed the slow pace of vaccination as the main reason behind the second Covid wave, accusing the government of delaying the timely order to the two vaccine producers that led to shortage of vaccines at several places.
Meagre utilisation of vaccination budget
During the hearing early this month, the court also sought to know the details about the utilisation of the vaccination budget of Rs 35,000 crores, which was approved by the Parliament.
ETV Bharat last month reported about the slow utilisation of the vaccination budget, which is just 1% of the total budgeted expenditure of the Union government for the current financial year.
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According to the latest data tweeted by Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance, as of May 6, the government had spent only Rs 4,744 crores on procurement of vaccines in two financial years, FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22.
The cumulative amount spent in two fiscals was less than 14% of this year’s vaccination budget. And the amount of Rs 2,520 crores, which was paid by the Centre to two vaccine manufacturers – Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech – in April this year was just 7.2% of the total vaccination budget for the current fiscal.
