After making failed attempts of requesting the central government for taking up the responsibility of free vaccination of youth, now the Rajasthan Government has asked for a public contribution to provide free vaccines. A dedicated bank account has opened for this. MLAs of ruling Congress have already started to give some amount from their MLA fund.
The issue of free vaccination has been repeatedly raised by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He raised the issue in the meeting of Chief Ministres with The Prime Minister and wrote a letter to Prime Minister stating that state governments do not have enough resources to provide free vaccines to youth.
But he did not get enough support from other Chief Ministers and not even from his own party’s Chief minsters, so now Rajasthan government has decided to provide free vaccination to 18 plus on their own, which will cost around 2500 crore Rs.
To raise funds for this program, the government has asked for public contribution. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said ‘we requested the Central Government so many times but they shifted the burden on state governments. The second wave is very infectious and it is our responsibility to save our youth. That’s why despite financial constraints we have started free vaccination from 1st of May. He urged people from all sections of society to contribute to the free vaccination of youth. Congress MLAs Congress have already started giving amount from their MLA local area development fund. The government is also planning to use 3 crore rupees of every MLA LAD fund. Through this government will get 600 crore rupees as there are 200 MLAs in the state and MLAs will be left with 2 crores for other development projects.
This issue is further getting politicised as well as Health Minister of Rajasthan Dr Raghu Sharma objected to the picture of the Prime Minister on the certificate of vaccination and said that if the Prime minister wants his picture on the certificate then the central government should have taken the responsibility of free vaccination of the age of 18 plus. He said to the media ‘the state government is bearing the burden so the picture should be of Chief Minister, not the Prime Minister and he will raise this issue to the Central government.
