Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his intervention to correct the imbalance in the Covid-19 vaccine allocation for the state and to make a special allocation of 1 crore vaccine doses.
In a letter to Modi, Stalin pointed out that the ministry of health and family welfare, in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court of India, had specifically submitted that the states have been allocated the available vaccine quantity in proportion to the population between 18-44 years of age of the respective state so as to ensure equitable distribution of vaccine.
However, Tamil Nadu has not received vaccines proportionate to its population size resulting in the current acute shortage of vaccines. “The number of vaccine doses provided to our state is only 302 per thousand eligible population. This is very low when compared to the vaccine doses made available to comparable states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan, which are at 533, 493 and 446 respectively,” Stalin said.
The chief minister recalled that he had requested the PM’s intervention in May this year in making a special allocation of Covid-19 vaccines to Tamil Nadu to correct the disproportionately low allocation made to the state, in terms of doses made available per thousand eligible population.
According to Stalin, till July 8, 2021, the state had received only 29,18,110 vaccines from the Centre for the people in 18-44 years category and 1,30,08,440 vaccines for the above 45 years category. “As the allocation of vaccines was very inadequate, we are finding it extremely difficult to meet the huge demand for vaccination throughout the state. The success of my government’s efforts to eliminate vaccine hesitancy and make the vaccination drive a mass movement now squarely rests on the doses made available to us,” he said.