LUDHIANA: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s scathing attack against Congress party ruled Punjab government on the issue of sale of vaccines procured from Centre to private hospitals at alleged profit seems to have rattled congress badly.
As a day after Puri’s blows to the congress, its MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu has come out in party’s defence.
He termed Puri’s charges baseless launched a fierce personal attack against him and even hit below the belt by terming Puri as disgrace to Sikhs and Punjabis.
In a statement Bittu said, “If Hardeep Puri is speaking of Punjab and its issues as a BJP karyakarta, where was he when Punjab was faced with an acute shortage of oxygen and there was a risk of patients dying in Amritsar due to shortage of Oxygen.
Did he arrange even one tanker or cylinder of oxygen for the citizens of Punjab during the time of acute shortage of oxygen.
Puri is a disgrace both to the Sikhs and Punjabis and it’s unfortunate that he allowed the Ordinance on Central Farm Laws to be passed in June 2020.
He’s complicit for the death of hundreds of farmers in Punjab and on Delhi borders since September 2020.
He needs to explain whether he tried to put forth the case of the Punjab farmers and their livelihoods when the Black Ordinances were promulgated in June 2020 and Acts passed by Parliament in September 2021.
Did he even open his mouth once to espouse the cause of the farmers of Punjab and the country” Bittu further said, “Has Puri ever visited a Punjab farm once or interacted with the poor distressed farmers ever in his life to understand their issues and problems.
Does he understand that the agrarian sector has been in deep distress for over more than a decade.
He’s a mouthpiece for the BJP and it’s shameful that he’s calling the three Central Farm Laws pro-farmer.
Does he have the guts to go to Singhu or Tikri border and explain the so-called benefits of the central Farm laws which the BJP and SAD tried to push through the throats of the Punjabis without any debate or discussion in June and September right during the middle of the horrid Covid pandemic.
How cruel can the BJP and its Hindutva can be” On the allegations of selling vaccine for profit by Punjab government Bittu said, “There’s no question of profiteering by the State from supply of vaccines when the whole amount paid by a few private hospitals has been deposited in the State Vaccination Fund for purchase of vaccines for vaccinating the citizens of the State free of cost.
This loot by the private hospitals, if any, is the result of faulty policies of the Central Government, Punjab government has nothing to do with this.
The real issue for which the central government is squarely responsible is the woefully inadequate supply of vaccines, which the State is not getting even after placing order with the Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune.
It again a matter of shame that only Covishield 4.29 lakh doses received so far despite the fact that the State placed order for 30 lakh Covishield vaccine doses with SII as soon as GoI announced its new Vaccine Policy.
Apart from paying Rs.18.27 cr.
for 5.43 lac vaccine doses, Punjab Government has paid Rs.22.88 cr.
as advance for procurement of 6.88 lac vaccine doses, which are yet to be received” Bittu further added, “As per the MoHFW data, as on June 1, 2021, vaccine coverage of Punjab is 14.13%, which is lowest than that of the neighbouring states and U.T.
because the state has been getting very less vaccine supplies, which is highly discriminatory and stepmotherly treatment is being meted out to the border State, which is the granary of the country and also its sword arm.
According to information put out by the government of India (GoI) on 26th May, many of the BJP ruled states were having huge stocks of vaccine doses with them.
On top of the list was U.P.
which had stockpiles of 25 lac vaccine doses in their stock followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh – GoI never gave the state its due allocation of vaccines”