Spell out details of `2,500-crore free vaccination drive: Bandi to CM KCR

Hyderabad: Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar demanded Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to spell out the details of allocation of Rs 2,500 crore by the State Government for a free vaccination programme.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Bandi Sanjay said that when the Centre is going to provide free vaccination for about 80 per cent of the population, "who are people the State government is going to give free vaccination to by spending Rs 2,500 crore."

Bandi Sanjay said that the TRS government announcement of the implementation of the free vaccination programme was meant to grab attention and headlines as people have lost confidence in it. Kumar said that the TRS government in the State has adopted double standards and blaming the Centre for its shortcomings and at the forefront in claiming credit for what the Centre is doing.

Both Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his son and Minister KT Rama Rao have realised that people are not in a mood to listen to their lies. So, they used Health Minister Etala Rajendra to mount criticism against the Centre. The minister initially had claimed the State was all prepared to fight the Covid with sufficient stocks of oxygen, Remedisivir and ventilators. In a couple of days, Eatala had gone back to change his track by blaming the Centre for failing Telangana and not doing anything. Curiously, the same minister took a U-turn claiming the Centre had allocated oxygen more than the required quantity to the State.

"These double standards exposed that the State government is not prepared to handle the Covid second wave and its negligence. The cocked up figures resulted in people taking the situation lightly and moving freely resulting in the Covid situation turning grim in Telangana," he said.

Barring a few, neither the chief minister nor any of his cabinet ministers or TRS leaders were seen getting vaccinated. The state government failed to create awareness on vaccination as it fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might get the credit for it.

Similarly, youth, senior citizens and the poor are dying as they are not able to pay the medical bills charged by the private hospitals. Yet, the State Government which had promised to implement the Ayushman Bharat did implement it. Besides, the Covid treatment was not included under Aarogyasri.

The Karimnagar MP said that the house surgeons were threatened and forced to work for hours at Gandhi Hospital without paying salaries. "What is the harm in paying Rs 50,000 when they were working keeping people's interest above their family interests," he asked the chief minister.

Nearly 20,000 applications were received for the advertisement to fill 100 posts of doctors at the Telangana Institute of Medical Science (TIMS). Why the State government has not taken up recruitment of doctors and other medical staff. Instead of sucking the blood to extract work from already understaffed doctors struggling to cope with the increasing Covid caseloads, he asked. Against his backdrop, the doctors might lose their confidence in despair in giving their best services in saving the lives of the people, he warned.