"Vaccination Can't Be A Battle Among...": Naveen Patnaik To Other States

West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee said she agrees with Naveen Patnaik, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Arvind Kejriwal on Covid-vaccine procurement by the Centre.

The best way to "protect our people against future waves" of COVID-19 is to centrally procure the vaccines and decentralise the execution of the inoculation drive, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has said today. In a letter written to his counterparts across the country, he referred to the unabated pandemic as perhaps the greatest challenge faced by the nation since the independence struggle. Wrote to 11 CMs in the spirit of Cooperative Federalism. Quite unfortunate that Centre absolves itself of its duty to procure vaccines, ensure free universal vaccination. United effort to jointly pursue our genuine demand is the need of the hour, so that Centre acts immediately. pic.twitter.com/ILvEFYSpRu He recommended that all states come together to form a consensus on the matter in the "true spirit of cooperative federalism" to save live and livelihoods. "No state is safe unless all the states adopt vaccination as the top most priority and execute it on war-footing. But this cannot be a battle among the states to compete against each other to procure vaccines," Mr Patnaik said in his letter, referring to  phase 3 of the Union government's vaccine policy. This latest version of the drive allows vaccination of all those above 18 years of age and lets states and private hospitals procure doses. Many states have, since, floated global tenders for supplies.