Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot urges PM to implement uniform pricing of COVID vaccines

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged the Centre to bear the expenditure involved in giving COVID vaccines to those in the 18 plus age bracket.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Gehlot has suggested that there should be a uniform pricing for vaccinating persons in the age group of 18 plus, 45 plus and 60 plus.

He said that vaccinating persons in the age group of 45 plus and 60 plus was free and charging those in the 18-45 age bracket for vaccination would create an anomaly and would lead to discriminations.

Gehlot discussed the issue with his Cabinet colleagues before writing to the Prime Minister.

He said that the states should be given a fair deal in charging for the vaccines as they would find it tough to meet the expenditure involved. He said uniformity of price would lessen the burden on the states.

He said that the private sector has been permitted to carry out vaccination, but such facilities would only allow the rich to enjoy the benefits and the poor would be left to fend for themselves.

Gehlot has asked members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha from the state to raise the issue of vaccines and oxygen supply with the Centre.

He said the states are facing high cases of Coronavirus with each passing day and it has fallen short of both vaccines and oxygen, with the situation expected to worsen in the coming days.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot too has demanded that the Centre foot the bill for vaccinating those in the 18 plus age group.

He has hit out at the Union government for its ‘double policy’ over the pricing of COVID vaccine and has objected to different rates for the same medicine.

He said the Union government is buying vaccines from two pharmaceutical companies at the rate of Rs 150 per vaccine. The same vaccine's six crore doses are being bought from one pharma company under the PM-CARES Fund for Rs 210 and one crore doses from another firm at Rs 310, which has left people wondering.

He said it was bizarre that the same vaccine would be sold to the Centre for Rs 150, to the states for Rs 400 and to the private hospitals for Rs 600.

He said that ‘one nation, one vaccine, one rate’ policy was the need of the hour to control hoarding and black marketing of vaccines.