'Let Congress Vaccinate' campaign launched

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Tuesday launched an online campaign 'Let Congress Vaccinate' in a bid to build pressure on the government to allow the party to procure Covid vaccines directly from the manufacturers.

Reacting to this, State Congress president D K Shivakumar said, "Though experts have pointed out that vaccination is the only way to prevent further waves of pandemic, our PM has done little to procure vaccines. So, we are keen on the Rs 100 crore-plan to directly procure vaccines from manufacturers and administer them to the people of Karnataka. We have been repeatedly seeking permission from the government to allow us to do so but it has not been granted yet."

Shivakumar added that he urged party workers and supporters to intensify the online campaign in a bid to get government approval. "We need your wholehearted support to build pressure on the government and to show to them how vaccines can be procured and administered to people in a totally transparent, fair, and efficient manner," he added.

The Karnataka Congress claims that the massive vaccine shortage is an example of BJP's utter failure to protect people. It said that the party cannot leave citizens' lives at the mercy of BJP's incompetence and the party in Karnataka has devised a vaccination plan to end this suffering.

Karnataka has been facing a shortage of vaccines for the 18-44 age group and have mostly been vaccinating frontline workers in this category. It plans to open 18 plus vaccination centres for all from June 1.